Thousands lose power in Bergen County as thunderstorms roll in during heat wave

Matt Fagan, NorthJersey.com
Updated ·2 min read
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A number of smaller, local thunderstorms whipped through portions of Bergen, Essex, Passaic and Union counties late Saturday afternoon, causing minor damage and thousands of customers to lose power.

The National Weather Service reported that trees were felled in the Rutherford area and PSE&G reported that more than 3,000 customers had lost power. A the worst of it, Bergen County had nearly 4,000 customers without power. By Sunday morning Bergen was down to only a handful of people without power.

Morris County, though, had over 1,400 customers without service Sunday morning.

It's a particularly inopportune time to lose power as the region remains stuck in a heat wave that's lasted most of the week.

In Linden, there were numerous reports of trees down as well as a lightning strike but while PSE&G's outage map showed numerous outages there were relatively few customers reporting outages.

The National Weather Service has extended the heat advisory for the North Jersey area until 6 p.m. on Friday.
The National Weather Service has extended the heat advisory for the North Jersey area until 6 p.m. on Friday.

Bryan Ramsey, meteorologist with of National Weather Service New York said the storms were small and isolated and after passing through, moved out to sea. The storm's gusts were straight line winds, which while noticeable were not severe.

NWS weather stations reported winds of 31 mph at Newark Liberty Airport, and 51 MPH at Linden airport.

"That's just under what's considered a severe thunderstorm," Ramsey said,

According the NWS severe thunderstorm wind gusts range between 58 and 74 mph.

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Portions of New Jersey remain vulnerable to the potential for isolated but severe thunderstorms, Ramsey said. The hot, humid weather means that isolated storms could crop up.

Local radar indicated that another thunderstorm popped up in Sussex County between 4:30 and 5 p.m. and appeared to be heading for northwest Passaic County towns of West Milford and Ringwood as well as northwest Bergen County in the late afternoon.

The forecast remains to be dangerously hot and humid through Sunday with AccuWeather predicting a brief respite in the 90-degree plus weather on Monday before returning on Tuesday and Wednesday.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Bergen County NJ residents lose power during heat wave