Nature’s power
With last night’s wood-whacking winds, the PECO outage total tops 400,000 for the week.
That line of thunderstorms that plowed through the region last night generated gusts up to 62 m.p.h., and in some households no doubt it kick-started the emergency generators.
In all, PECO reported 260,000 service interruptions – what we loosely call power outages -- as a result of last night's storms, according to PECO's Cathy Engel-Menendez.
On Thursday night, the eve of the holiday, about 150,000 customers lost power, but meteorologically the events were quite different.
Last week's variety came with lightning so frequent that it had almost a strobe effect; last night's was more about wood-whacking wind.
The storms were short-lived because they literally came through in a line, rather than a cluster, said Gary Szatkowski, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service office in Mount Holly.
Conditions in the upper atmosphere were ideal for the line formation, he said, and the front had a mass of juicy air to exploit, as anyone who was outside before sunset could affirm.
The result was a rapidly moving front and impressive wind gusts – 62 m.p.h. in Runnemede, Camden County; 60 in Southampton, Burlington County, and Norwood, Delaware County, and 59 at Philadelphia International Airport.
Shower and thunderstorms are possible again late today and tonight, but the modest heat spell is toast.
The weekend is looking splendid, and the government's two-week outlook favors below-normal temperatures around here.