Thousands Without Power In NJ As Cold Front Brings Rain And Wind

NEW JERSEY — Thousands of New Jersey residents were without power Thursday morning after a cold front triggered rain and strong winds across the state Wednesday night, according to multiple reports including NJ.com.

As of 9 a.m. Thursday, more than 15,000 homes and businesses lost power in New Jersey, mostly affecting PSE&G, Rockland, ACE, and JCP&L, according to NJ Advance Media’s power outage tracker.

These numbers skyrocketed Wednesday night before dropping again, with around 5,600 homes and businesses without power around 8:50 p.m. before numbers climbed to 27,850 by 10 p.m., 36,730 by 10:20 p.m., and 43,500 at 11 p.m., according to NJ.com.

The New Jersey counties experiencing the most outages as of just before 10 a.m. Thursday is Warren County, which has 3,605 without power, and Hunterdon County, which counts 4,099 outages.

On Wednesday, the US National Weather Service Philadelphia/Mount Holly said that a Wind Advisory was in effect for the entire state of New Jersey, with gusts expected to reach 40-50 miles per hour in the evening.

Wind data from the Rutgers NJ Weather Network shows that just a few locations with gusts into the 50s were Fortescue in Cumberland County, Lower Alloways Creek in Salem County, and High Point Monument in Sussex County, with winds reaching speeds of 54, 55, and 56 miles per hour Wednesday, respectively.

Into the evening through the night, the cold front caused temperatures to plummet from the 50s and 60s in the afternoon to the 30s overnight, weather officials said.

Officials are predicting potential snow showers from the northwest Thursday, adding that "a few snow squalls for our northwesternmost areas this morning cannot be ruled out."