Good afternoon everyone. The National Weather Service has issued a Severe Thunderstorm Watch for portions of the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic United States including New Jersey until 8:00 PM EDT this evening. A cold front is passing through the region, and ahead of the front there has been the warmest weather this region has seen so far in 2007. Temperatures got up well into the 80s with highs in Central Jersey reaching about 85 degrees.

Temperatures behind the front range from 15 to 30 degrees cooler in such locales as Detroit, Indianapolis, and Chicago. As a result, two strong lines of thunderstorms have developed across the Garden State. The first line has pushed through much of Northern New Jersey including Morris, Passaic, Bergen, and Hudson County, and is now beginning to move through the Northern Suburbs of New York City. Meanwhile, another line is currently pushing through the Central New Jersey area. From Easton, Pennsylvania to west of Trenton, New Jersey, strong to severe thunderstorms have fired up including a severe thunderstorm cell that crossed the Delaware River near Frenchtown, New Jersey some 21 miles to the east of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

A Severe Thunderstorm Warning was issued for Hunterdon County in Northwest Central New Jersey, and Somerset County in Northern Central New Jersey at about 3:00 PM EDT, and conditions deteriorated rapidly here in Middlesex County at around 3:30 PM EDT. The most dominant of all the effects associated with this storm was gusty winds. Spurred on by strong winds between 50 and 70 mph at the upper levels around 10,000 feet according to The Weather Channel, winds really began to howl as the sky darkened in the Northwest portion of Middlesex County. Rainfall gradually picked up as time progressed. As of the latest report, about 0.06 inches of rain fell at the GWC Weather Station.

Conditons are getting better as the severe weather has moved off to the east and weakened somewhat. Nevertheless, there are still showers and thundershowers in the area.