I'm keeping my fingers crossed, I didn't get a chance to look in my garden yet.

I did get a scare as I ran to my car to get out of the rain. Bam! a lightning bolt came down on a nearby hill and the thunder clap came right after. It reminded me how serious a lightning storm can be!
We had heavy winds, temperature drop, and nickle sized hail. As I sat in the car I watched the hail bouncing around and building up on the driveway. It's odd. This is the second seroius hailstorm of the summer.... I don't think I need a second hand to count how many hailstorms I remember before summer 2006. Is this a new trend?
At least it's not a hurricane.

Interesting that you mention hail - growing up during the '60s & '70s, I remember hail storms all the time. Then over the past 20 or so years - at least here where I am, I have rarely seen any hail at all (and none since I've lived at my current spot). It seems that when fronts come through, the colder air mixes down just ahead and that must help stabilize the atmosphere and melt the ice before it reaches the ground. Could be a cycle and we're going back to a period of less air mixing and more hail storms again. The weather can be quite cyclical.

Oh and T.S. Beryl is sitting out there so ya never know where those will go... :-p

Am hearing this morning that there are 500,000 without power down here in SE PA and S. Jersey, so am hoping that all of my PA neighbors w/o power are hanging in there! It's hard this time of year because so many of us who grow veggies have plants that are tall and bearing or ready to bear and also very fragile, and it only takes some windy storms like this to take away the harvest. :-(

"Wizard of Oz" was exactly what I thought when I saw the storm blow through last night. The wind was unbelievable! I felt certain that one of my big trees was going to lose a major limb right on my roof. I was lucky, though. No damage to gardens or yard. Just one medium-sized limb in the middle of the yard. Whew! That was scary!

I was on the road from Baltimore and got in about 9:00. Here in SE Chesco, I had little to no damage. A few small twigs, and a fair number of leaves on the drive, but nothing to worry about. Did not even lose power which is a first, as we generally have 'lights out' from a sneeze.

George

It got dark. It threatened to blow. It decided to weaken. We had a brief wind--not much. Then a little rain. It seems these storms are traveling between routes 30 and 23 from west to east. At least, the last several this year.

On my way to work this morning, I saw an exploded Bradford pear. I mean literally, every one of the thick branches had cracked off from the center of the tree and were splayed all over the street and sidewalk. On the way home, a tree up on a hill had toppled across to the other side of the street but was tall enough to have been braced from falling any further by the trees on the other side (leaving the trunk suspended some 20ft in the air).

Bob - I guess you lucked out as it seems that Chesco and Montco got hit the worst!

Jenny:

Yes, I am down near the MD border and the strength of the storm was in norther Chester County.

We are in northern chester county and got the full impact of the storm. Power is still out. We have a gas generator, but it does not power everything (nothing 220 V, so no A/C, washer, dryer, stove). We had a lightning strike on a locust tree, but it still looks pretty solid. The arborist we had out today recommended leaving it for a year as he has seen locusts make a surprising comeback from lightning. 3 large trees on the property line broke off near the ground and fell on the fence. This seems to have been from the wind, not lightning. About 4 other trees lost a substantial limb or section. The grill blew halfway across the deck! DH has been chainsawing a lot, but it will likely be another $700 for the tree trimmer to clean up what we can't safely do ourselves. We should be well stocked with firewood and wood chip mulch for a while!

Wow moggy_moo. Hope everything goes okay with you! I believe the NWS said that there may have been a microburst and they definitely know there were alot of straight-line winds. I had heard earlier that Bucks County had declared a state of emergency.

I'm near route 30 betwqeen Coatesville and Downingtown. The ower was out for about 22 hours. I also had a tree that "exploded." A two story + tall maple had every limb ripped off at the trunk, and the trunk broke off about 25 feet from the ground. It all missed the house, but took out a shrub border. The bark at the end of the branches is popped open as if it swelled up and split. Otherwise, hardly a leaf blown of the other trees. A hydrangia that I have been nursing is already showing the effects of the loss of shade.

I was home from work on Tuesday afternoon, and stood outside in the breezeway as the storm blew in. Pretty scary, I thought we were going to lose trees for sure. I can't remember ever seeing such strong gusts.

Our glass-topped patio table blew over even thought the umbrella was down (never happened before). And I could swear some of our newer trees were permanently tilted by the wind a little bit. The 20 foot tall tulip poplar used to be straight up and down, now it looks a tiny bit out of plumb.

Nothing in upper Bucks this week. There was a LOT of lightning last night both south and north. We got .04 inches of rain last night, and .08 inches in the middle of the week.

The power kept going out repeatedly yesterday and last night, so I know it must have been bad all around us.

Well to say the least a huge tree branch fell on my car :(, We came home from dinner since the sky was literally getting blacker and blacker as the seconds passed, then we turned off the electricity and sat in the living room, heard a crack, about two minutes later another crack and I watched the branches fall ontop of my car! THANK GOD that no damage was done, it is a miracle that all I have is a dent on the trunk, it took three people with three chainsaws to cut it up, it was amazing thats all the damage. And surprisingly we still had electricity, I know that many were without any for days so best of luck to all! God bless!

We were without power from Tues. night till Sat. nite----We do have a generator so the food didn't spoil but no AC---YUK---it was hot.

I'm in Lower Bucks .

Florence

Wow. I wish all of you well. I watched the last batch of storms continually zapping the same spots up near NE Philly and probably up in Bucks County (I can see about 10 miles from my hi-rise balcony). Had heard on the news that 2 teens were struck and killed by lightning over in Jersey I think. One of my collegues at work told me that his house got zapped in Montco, including his TV and the power was off for a time. One of my sisters who lives in Delco also had an extended power outage, although her area seems to have that happen all the time when storms go through - just too many old trees falling or branches snapping power lines.

The weather forecast is calling for the old-fashioned Bermuda High "dog days", with the afternoon thunderstorms, so everyone be alert the next couple days! It's definitely summertime.

Wouldn't you know it, THAT was the week I had to visit PA! And northern Chester county at that!

We were driving back to our hotel after spending the day at Longwood Gardens and hubby had to hold the steering wheel hard to keep the car going straight. This was a Cavalier, which would normally be too low to be affected by wind. Then when we got to the hotel, there were sparks flying from the tree right in front near the entrance. We drove on past to make sure it was safe to get in. The hotel hosted a free breakfast to make up for the lack of power, and went to generator power later in the day. It was crazy. Then when I was flying home, a 5-hour trip turned into a 29-hour one with a night in the airport and a detour through Chicago. Just nuts!

But had a great time nonetheless. I want to go back to Longwood Gardens when the temperature outside the conservatories isn't as hot and sticky as it is inside! And I got my first look at Japanese beetles on their hibiscus bushes. Yuck!

Janet's Garden