For those of you in Central Jersey, who were home at around dinner time last night, might have been surprised by the weather that took place. If you watched The Weather Channel yesterday morning like I did, there was a forecast for strong to severe thunderstorms in the Northeast, but it was supposed to be confined to upstate New York and New England. However, it didn’t work out that way.

I was at work, and had gone for a walk outside at about 6:00 PM, and noticed that the skies had become cloudy, which took me by surprise, but I didn’t think that it was going to get even worse. A little more than a half an hour later, I was at my desk, and heard something that sounded like rain falling on the roof. I turned around, and saw that the skies had become pitch black outside. I wondered for a moment on whether or not, it was because it was getting dark earlier. However, when I looked at the clock in the office, it read 6:35 PM.

Surprised and puzzled, I logged on to the National Weather Service web site, and checked out the Mount Holly, New Jersey office. On the map of New Jersey, areas were colored in colors for Hazardous Weather Outlooks or Special Weather Statement. I then saw a radar snapshot of the Garden State, and saw that there was a small line of thunderstorms passing through Northern Middlesex County. The line of thunderstorms was capable of producing heavy downpours and even some hail. The storms proceeded to move southeastward into Monmouth County.

After work, I drove down to Neptune in Monmouth County for something that I had planned to do after work. I was driving right into the inclement weather. There was vivid lightning, and some rain. However, I had managed to avoid much of the storminess. These strong storms had surprised some folks. I was listening to the radio on the drive down, and the DJ had also indicated that earlier forecasts had the storms much farther north. In Northwest Middlesex County, there was only 0.17 inches of rain.