Scary evening

Last night was Senior Award night at the High School where our daughter Cara attends. When we got out of the ceremony at around 9:00 PM the sky was a mass of lightning. We were in the midst of a good ol' fashioned electrical storm.  It was to the point where the periods of darkness were actually farther apart than the instances of lightning. The lightning seemed to be occurring in all directions, too - East, West, North and South of us, all at once. It was like there were fireworks displays all around us and while we couldn't see the actual fireworks, we could see the flashes from the explosions. The last time I remember an electrical storm of this intensity and duration has to be more than 25 years ago.

There was no rain, no booming cracks of thunder, just low rumbles with the skies lit up all over. This little patch of Central New Jersey made out well, thanks be to God. Other parts of NJ did not. Way to the north of us, much closer to the NY border in Stanhope, NJ a possible tornado did a lot of damage to Lenape Regional High School. There was a sports award banquet going on and everyone huddled in the gym while the storm raged. Besides the structural damage, two teens were injured by falling branches on the way to their cars in the parking lot. The damage to the school roof was enough to cancel classes today.

Closer to the north of us, a strong cell that had rotating winds raced across Morris and Union counties and into NYC and Staten Island. There were reports of heavy rain, hail and damaging winds. To the south of us, way down in Salem county, there was also a strong cell with rotating winds that did damage down there.

I heard on the news this morning during my drive into work, that this may have been the first time in the recorded history of New Jersey that three possible tornadoes occurred on the same day, within hours of each other. This was the same storm system that ripped the roof off Hara Arena in Dayton the night before. The National Weather Service will be busy in New Jersey today, trying to determine if these were indeed tornadoes, or possibly macro or microbursts of wind. The Doppler Radar evidence of rotational winds seems to be leaning towards tornadoes at this time.

Of course, the antennas were unplugged that the W2LJ shack last night, and they remain unplugged. We may be in store for more thunderstorms, some possibly severe later this afternoon and this evening. Stay safe my friends! This is a good reminder for all of us Amateur Radio operators who are currently living in this Summer season - keep those antennas unplugged and off your radios whenever you're not home and while a storm is raging and you are at home.. There does not have to be a direct hit to damage your gear. Enough static in the air from nearby surrounding lightning is enough to damage your prized Ham Radio possessions. Unless you have invested into a comprehensive system for lightning abatement at your shack that you are willing to trust 100%  (like in the photo above), it's easier and less expensive to disconnect and toss the cables out the window.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!