Tropical Storm — Eastern Essex, New Jersey

2020-08-04 · Eastern Essex, New Jersey

Event narrative

Nearby, a maximum sustained wind of 47 mph at 233 pm LST, and a peak wind gust of 68 mph at 1207 pm LST, were measured at the Newark International Airport ASOS. Nearby, a maximum sustained wind of 42 mph was recorded at the Harrison Wx COOP station in Hudson County at 1155 am LST.

These type of winds across the area resulted in numerous trees and tree limbs being downed, power outages, damages to homes and automobiles, and disruption to mass transit.

There were no reports of coastal flooding as the highest storm surge did not coincide with high tide and was during a period of low astronomical tides.

Wider weather episode

Category 1 Hurricane Isaias with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph, made landfall near Ocean Isle Beach, NC at 11:10 pm on August 3rd. Isaias intensity weakened back to Tropical Storm strength as it forward speed increased to near 30 mph early morning of August 4th.

The center of Isaias passed about 65 miles west of New York City at 3 pm on August 4, 2020, with tropical storm force winds east of the center of circulation. The highest sustained wind speeds across northeastern New Jersey ranged from 35 to 50 mph, with gusts 60 to 70 mph, resulting in widespread wind damage and power outages. Rainfall amounts of 1/2 to 4 inches were observed across northeastern NJ, resulting in some localized flooding issues.

Two injuries resulted from high winds:

In Kearny, Hudson County NJ, one person was injured as a tree fell on there car on Schulyer Avenue

In Little Ferry, Bergen County, NJ one person and a dog were injured when struck by a falling tree

Preliminary damage cost estimates are:

Gov. Phil Murphy has sent the White House a request for just under $34.2 million in recovery funds for parts of the state hit hardest by the storm

The number of power outages state wide peaked around 1.4 million on August 4-5th, with many outages extending for days. In addition, multiple disruptions to mass transit and road closures due to downed power lines and trees were noted, with numerous water systems having to move to alternate power. Because of all the damage, the state had to open 13 debris management sites.

The state lost around xx percent of their tree population.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 923997. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.