Keith Mayer: Thunderstorm passes through Berks with some outages and trees down
May 22—Most of Berks County saw some rain, lightning and thunder on Sunday afternoon from thunderstorms.
A thunderstorm warning was issued about 4 p.m. to run through 5 p.m.
Going into the storm, Met-Ed reported about 100 customers without power. By 6 p.m., that number was about 1,100 scattered across 18 municipalities.
All were expected to be returned to service by later Sunday.
There were scattered reports of limbs and trees down, a transformer fire and electrical problems in residences. Emergency reports showed that southern Berks had numerous trees down.
Many areas were hit by fast-moving downpours and many spots saw little to no rain.
A National Weather Service-issued severe thunderstorm watch was due to expire at 9 Sunday night.
The watch was issued Sunday afternoon from the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla.
Storms were initially forecast to invade the region after 2 p.m., but the cool front that pushed them along took longer than expected to move through the mid-Atlantic.
Meanwhile, the temperature peaked at 92 degrees on Sunday at Reading Regional Airport, the weather service site in Berks. In little more than a half-hour, the mercury had fallen to 75 degrees during the storms' passage.
It was the second straight 90-degree day.
The high on Saturday was also 92 degrees, and both dates fell a few degrees short of date records and 4 degrees out of contention for a monthly record. Previous forecasts suggested that all-time May records would be challenged on Saturday.
AccuWeather's forecast is for a cool west wind to take over early Monday, then mostly sunny conditions later in the day with a high near 75 degrees, and the wind shifting to the northwest.
The rest of the week looks to be seasonable with clouds and rain possible on Wednesday, according to AccuWeather.
