South Jersey School Hit By Severe Thunderstorm During Commencement Ceremonies

As mentioned yesterday afternoon, a severe thunderstorm cell developed in Middlesex County and pushed its way southeastward to Southern Monmouth and Ocean Counties during the dinner hour. Some rotation had been noted with the storm as it brought hail and high winds to places such as Howell, Manchester, Toms River, and barrier island areas such as Seaside Heights, Seaside Park, Island Beach State Park, and Long Beach Island.

There were more storms, especially further south toward the very end of Ocean County into the Southeastern Tip of Burlington County and Atlantic County. Two waves of storms hit those areas including one that spawned a funnel cloud on the top of a high school graduation ceremony in Absegami near Atlantic City. The severe storm produced hail and gusty winds. Fortunately the graduation ceremony ended just in time, and nobody was seriously hurt. The timing of these two thunderstorm cells coincided with the storm that rolled through Southern Monmouth and Ocean County.

Looking at Thursday’s 24 hour radar loop from Weather Underground out of the Fort Dix area, you can see the thunderstorms begin to fire up in Middlesex County around 4:00 PM, and then roll through Monmouth and Ocean County by 7:00 PM. Meanwhile, the thunderstorm cells in South Jersey erupted around 5:00 PM with the one that produced the Absegami funnel cloud starting up at around 6:00 PM.

It has been a crazy week of weather here in New Jersey. On Sunday, severe weather developed in Hunterdon County and produced warnings here in Northwestern Middlesex County for a time in the mid-afternoon. Then on Monday, strong thunderstorms brought heavy downpours to Northern Middlesex County in the morning. Cold air funnel clouds were sighted in Cape May County earlier in the week as well, and then the strong to severe thunderstorms from Middlesex to Monmouth to Ocean Counties on Thursday afternoon along with the severe weather in South Jersey.