Good morning everyone. As I had indicated yesterday, conditions would be ripe for severe weather here in New Jersey on Thursday. Already we have had a powerful line of thunderstorms develop, and move rapidly to the Northeast through Eastern Pennsylvania and Western New Jersey this morning.

In response, the National Weather Service Office in Mount Holly, New Jersey has issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning and a Tornado Warning for portions of the Garden State. The Tornado Warning is in effect for parts of Western Jersey including Morris County, Northeastern Hunterdon County, East Central Warren County, and South Central Sussex County.

At 11:18 AM, Doppler Radar indicated a severe thunderstorm with a tornadic signature, or rotation located near Califon in Hunterdon County, or about 17 miles east of Easton, Pennsylvania moving rapidly to the Northeast at 50 miles per hour. The storm is also capable of producing quarter size hail and damaging straight line winds. The Tornado is moving on a path toward Long Valley and Hackettstown in Warren County, Budd Lake and Chester in Morris County, Succasunna, Netcong, and Stanhope in Morris County, and Wharton, Dover, and Mount Arlington in Morris County.

Meanwhile, there is a Severe Thunderstorm Warning in effect for Northwestern Middlesex, Northwestern Mercer, Somerset, Hunterdon, and Southwestern Warren counties. National Weather Service Doppler Radar located a severe thunderstorm capable of producing damaging winds of up to 60 miles per hour near the town of Pipersville in Pennsylvania some 19 miles south of Easton.

Over the next 20 minutes the storm is forecast to move through the following areas: Sand Brook and Seargeantsville, Flemington and Cloverhill, Whitehouse Station, Bridgewater and Raritan, and Somerville. Places in Northwestern Middlesex County such as Dunellen, Middlesex, and South Plainfield should closely monitor the situation. These two storms moving through Western New Jersey are part of a line of storms extending southwestward into Southeastern Pennsylvania, Northern Delaware, and Northeastern Maryland.

This activity is all apart of a severe weather outbreak that produced a great deal of damage in the Midwest and South. Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia are all affected by tornadoes with over 150 sightings in those areas on Thursday, and at least 194 deaths including 128 in Alabama alone. One wedge tornado that began in Philadelphia, Mississippi and traveled through Alabama near Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, traveled some 300 miles according to reports.

A Severe Thunderstorm Watch is currently in effect for most if not all of New Jersey, Delaware, Northeastern Maryland, and Eastern Pennsylvania until 4:00 PM on Thursday afternoon.