First it got as dark as night, even though it was dinnertime, and then the big, big power wash came on.
Tuesday night's sudden, violent
storm brought lots of lightning strikes, like this one in Willow Street.
Fallen tree at the corner of Orange and Prince streets in Lancaster.
That was followed by heavy, tree-bending and tree-breaking wind and a big light show, accompanied by what sounded like explosions going off constantly in the distance.
This is what people in a wide swath of the central part of Lancaster County saw and heard late Tuesday afternoon into evening, as a powerful thunderstorm rolled through the county.
The storm brought heavy rain, knocked down countless trees, started several fires due to lightning strikes and left several thousand customers without power.
But in its wake, the county, which baked under a record high set Tuesday just before the storm, is now entering a more comfortable several-day stretch, forecasters said today.
The high reached 97 degrees at 4 p.m.,. making Tuesday the warmest day of a four-day heat wave that had started late last week and the hottest June 10 since 1974's 95-degree high.
Then came the storm, but if you live in northern or southern parts of the county that had only some sprinkles, you might have no idea what we're talking about.
But in the middle of the county, a good inch or so of rain came quickly during the fierce storm, Millersville University meteorologist Eric Horst said today.
The storm started here around 5:30 p.m., and "what you saw varied from neighborhood to neighborhood ... but the middle third of Lancaster County was what got hit the hardest," Horst said.
This morning, the temperature and dew points were much more comfortable than on Tuesday. Dew points were in the low 60s, rather than the sweltering low 70s, Horst said.
And today's high was expected to crest in the mid-80s, not the mid-90s "so what's outside is more typical of mid-June," Horst said.
The next three days look to be pleasant, with a chance of a mercury climb back up to near 90 degrees, with maybe some increased humidity, by Friday.
Thursday should again bring the same sunny and warm weather, with clear skies overnight.
Showers could join a cooler front coming in Saturday, while Sunday could be a much more pleasant 80 degrees, with a cool breeze.
There could even be highs just into the 70s next week, and overall "the next seven-to-10-day period will have no repeat of the recent hot weather," Horst added.
Tuesday's storm cut a narrow path through the county. A rainfall total near Ephrata was less than a tenth of an inch, while New Holland had 1.25 inches.
There also was hail, some of it heavy, pounding cars and houses for a short period.
Several hundred emergency personnel responded to numerous fire calls and downed trees, many due to lightning strikes, said Randy Gockley, the county's emergency management coordinator.
Four people escaped a house fire in West Lampeter Township, while a barn in Earl Township sustained $100,000 in damages after a fire.
Fire crews also were called to a lightning strike at the Woodcrest Villa retirement community just west of Lancaster.
Some 3,200 customers were still without power here at mid-morning in the county, 2,300 of them in the Cocalico area and another 800 in the Lancaster area.
Meanwhile, power had been restored to another 2,100 here, according to PPL's Web site (
www.pplweb.com).
For some, power may not be restored until early tomorrow morning, a PPL spokesman said today.
The power outages were reported across many communities, including Lancaster, New Holland, the Millersville/Manor Township area, Manheim Township and New Holland.
A lightning strike caused a house fire just after 6 p.m. at 2091 Hollinger Road, in West Lampeter.
Officials estimated there was $80,000 in content and structural damage to the home, which is part of a duplex owned by Philip and Donna Faust.
The attached house at 2089 Hollinger Road, which the Fausts rent, also was affected by the fire, a local fire chief said.
The barn blaze in Earl Township was at 747 Hollander Road, just south of New Holland.
Liberty Fire Chief Larry Martin said as many as 100 firefighters fought to keep the blaze from spreading in the barn, containing most of the damage to the second floor.
The barn sustained $100,000 in damage, including the contents of the building.
And, in East Hempfield Township, fire crews responded quickly to a roof fire at Woodcrest Villa caused by lightning.
They were able to contain the damage to the roof of the retirement complex, although two apartments did sustain minor damage, officials said.
Overall, the storms left 164,000 customers without power across eastern Pennsylvania, only hours after record-breaking temperatures capped a four-day heat wave blamed for the deaths of two Philadelphia women.
Allentown-based PPL said the storms knocked out power to more than 23,000 of its customers in Lancaster County and several other regions.
Staff writer David O'Connor can be reached at doconnor@LNPnews.com or 481-6033.
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