Video: Rare tornado uproots trees, flips over cars in New Jersey

A brief but damaging landspout tornado touched down in New Jersey's Mercer County on Friday evening as severe thunderstorms rolled through the state.

The National Weather Service said the tornado, which reached peak winds of 80 miles per hour (129 kilometres per hour), mainly caused damage in Lawrence Township.

The twister snapped trees, one of which fell onto a gas station, and overturned several cars in the parking lot of a post office. No injuries were reported.

The short-lived tornado tracked for around 210 metres between 5:59 PM and 6:00 PM, with a maximum width of 55 metres.

(Photo: Jaroslaw Radzimierski/Facebook)

Landspout tornadoes differ from their more destructive counterparts in that they form from the ground up, rather than developing from a rotating thunderstorm overhead. Their smaller size and formation below standard radar range often make them difficult to predict and detect.

According to officials, the spin responsible for the tornado was caused by the collision of outflow winds from storms in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, meeting the eastward sea breeze. The weather event comes just ahead of an expected heatwave forecast for next week in the state.