MOUNT EPHRAIM — Hurricane Isaac has been long dead, but its effects have been felt across New Jersey early this week.

The National Weather Service in Mount Holly confirmed this morning that a tornado touched down in Camden County around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday night, causing damage to several homes near Kings Highway.

The tornado was weak, and only on the ground for less than a minute, but packed winds of more than 70 miles per hour, uprooting trees, damaging roofs and pulling power lines from residents' homes in the area.



It marks the first time this year a tornado has been confirmed in the Garden State.

The tornado occurred on an afternoon rife with severe weather across New Jersey, as storms spawned by the remnants of Isaac produced flooding rains well into the evening and prompted four tornado warnings in various parts of the state.

National Weather Service meteorologist Mitchell Gaines said differing wind profiles, called shear, allowed several storms affecting New Jersey Tuesday to begin rotating, and, in the case of the Mount Ephraim storm, produce a tornado.

No other tornadoes have been confirmed as a result of Tuesday's storms.

Gaines said Mount Holly's radar operator was prepared for the possibility of tornadoes after Isaac's remnants spawned a tornado in Kent County in Delaware on Monday.

"By that point (Tuesday), we knew we had already had one," Gaines said. "So we knew it was a possibility going into Tuesday."

Gaines said the threat for rain remains today, but storms producing tornadoes are not likely.

Tropical moisture leftover from Isaac has also produced flooding downpours across the state Monday and Tuesday, dropping as much as 6 inches of rain in some parts of New Jersey. The last several weeks have been particularly soggy near the New Jersey shore, where more than a foot of rain has fallen in Toms River since Aug. 1 alone.

Related coverage:

• Bad storms drench N.J. with torrential rain, tornado alerts

• Tornado warning issued in Warren County; bad storms continue moving through N.J.