Tornado Watch

[Boyd]

TORNADO WATCH OUTLINE UPDATE FOR WT 605
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
315 PM EDT MON AUG 7 2023

TORNADO WATCH 605 IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 1100 PM EDT FOR THE
FOLLOWING LOCATIONS

. NEW JERSEY COUNTIES INCLUDED ARE

ATLANTIC BURLINGTON CAMDEN
CAPE MAY CUMBERLAND GLOUCESTER
HUNTERDON MERCER SALEM
WARREN

 

[Boyd]

Storm didn't seem too bad here, but when I went out this morning a small tree had snapped off and only missed my car by about two feet when it fell. Very strange, oak tree that was only about 20 feet tall and under a bigger oak that had no damage at all. No signs of high winds or downed branches anywhere else in the yard. I was lucky, that tree was big enough to do some real damage, it's quite heavy.

 

[Boyd]

Whoa! Just heard a big BANG in the distance and my power went out! Running on battery backup now and shutting everything down....

 

[Boyd]

Checked the app and it immediately showed I was part of an outage for 350 people, estimated repair at 11:00 AM. While I was out, got an alert at 9:30 saying power was restored. Giving credit where it's due, this was handled very smoothly by Atlantic City Electric and their new app is a big improvement. They just finished installing "smart" meters throughout the area, so I guess that helps diagnose outages in realtime. My only concern is that it the old "dumb" meter wasn't a target for cyberattacks like a connected device.

Still wondering what caused the outage, what I heard sounded like a loud gunshot off in the distance, then sirens a few minutes later. Maybe a transformer exploded? When I went out there were two fire trucks blocking a lane on the county route, but the crews were just standing around waving people by.

 

[Teegate]

Most likely a transformer. I was standing across the street from one a few years back when it blew. The cops were sitting down the street and got out of his vehicle and yelled at my family to leave.

 

[Boyd]

I have seen them blow a couple times, pretty scary. Years ago, I remember driving through Mount Laurel on Rt 73 near the NJ Turnpike entrance in a storm with lightning and hail pounding down. All of a sudden, a transformer blew on a pole with a shower of sparks, apparently it was hit by lightning!