Lightning Strike in Delaware, July 19, 2002

Name: Lightning Strike in Delaware, July 19, 2002
Start: 2002-07-19T13:10
End: 2002-07-19T13:30
Location: Delaware

July 19, 2002 · NWS PHI · 1 event in 1 county or zone

Thunderstorms produced considerable cloud-to-ground lightning across southeastern Sussex County. The resulting strikes caused several fires from Bethany Beach to Millville.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $250,000
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS PHI wrote it up.

Thunderstorms produced considerable cloud-to-ground lightning across southeastern Sussex County. The resulting strikes caused several fires from Bethany Beach to Millville. In Millville, six homes were struck by lightning. Two suffered significant damage. One home had its entire interior singed. In Ocean View, a garage was destroyed. In Bethany Beach, two units of the Sea Colony Townhouses suffered moderate to severe fire damage. Witnesses saw lightning strike the roof of one of the townhouses. In downtown Bethany Beach, lightning struck the transformer at the back of one store. It knocked out the power to the store and its phone service was out until the next day. The liquor store next door could not get its computer or register to work properly until the 22nd. No serious injuries were reported.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Philadelphia/Mount Holly wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 19, 10:05 AM EST, 3 hours 5 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 19, 10:05 AM EST, 3 hours 5 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...UPDATED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MOUNT HOLLY NJ
1105 AM EDT FRI JUL 19 2002

HAVE UPDATED FCST TO...GO WITH VARIABLE CLOUDINESS THIS AFTN
RATHER THAN MOSTLY CLOUDY BASED ON CURRENT CONDS AND SAT PIX.
ALSO RAISED TEMPS AND HEAT INDICES A NOTCH MOST ZONES TO REFLECT
ADDED HEATING FROM THE ADDITIONAL SS. REST OF FCST LOOKS GOOD
FOR NOW WITH SHWRS/TSTMS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP THIS AFTN AND EVNG...
MORE LIKELY NRN ZONES.

RPW
-------------------------------------------------------------------
PREVIOUS DISC...

NOT MUCH RELIEF EARLY THIS MORNING IN THE BIG CITY AS TEMPS REMAIN
AROUND 80 DEGREES...70S JUST ABOUT EVERYWHERE ELSE. WITH LITTLE
RELIEF DURING THE RECENT OVERNIGHTS...SEVERAL CONSECUTIVE DAYS IN
THE 90S...AND PROBABLY THE HIGHEST DEWPOINTS DURING THIS RUN...HAVE
CHOSEN TO KEEP THE HEAT WARNING GOING EVEN THOUGH DB TEMPS SHOULD
DROP A FEW DEGREES TODAY. 92/73 PUTS THE HI AT 100 DEGREES. FAVOR
FWC/MAV NUMBERS.

MODELS HAVE HAD DIFFICULTY THE LAST SEVERAL DAYS WITH PRECIPITATION.
RIGHTLY SO WITH THE LACK OF TRIGGERING MECHANISMS. COLD FRONT TO THE
NORTH IS FORECAST TO DRIFT SOUTH TODAY. THIS SHOULD ACT AS A FOCUS
FOR MOIST CONVECTION TODAY. POPS WILL BE HIGHEST ACROSS THE NRN
ZONES. AFTER COORDINATION WITH AKQ WILL DROP THE LIKELY POPS WE HAD
GOING ACROSS THE SRN ZONES INTO THE CHANCE CATEGORY. PW/S REMAIN
HIGH...AS DOES FLASH FLOOD GUIDANCE DUE TO THE RECENT DRY WEATHER.
STILL CAN/T RULE OUT LOCALIZED FLOODING THOUGH. THIS A GREATER
THREAT THAN ORGANIZED SEVERE.

WILL KEEP POPS IN THE EVENING TONIGHT ACROSS THE SOUTH AND PAST
MIDNIGHT ACROSS THE NORTH WITH THE BOUNDARY IN THIS VICINITY. CAN/T
RULE OUT MOIST CONVECTION TOMORROW AFTERNOON AS LOW LEVEL MOISTURE
WILL STILL BE PRESENT AND ETA WIND FIELDS SUGGEST THE SAME DECAYING
BOUNDARY HANGING AROUND. AN IMPEDING FACTOR AND DIFFERENT FROM
TODAY...THE H5 TROF AXIS WILL SHIFT EAST TOMORROW PUTTING US IN A NW
FLOW. HAVE THROWN IN 20 POPS. TEMPS SHOULD BE SEVERAL DEGREES
COOLER. THUS DO NOT FAVOR THE ETA MOS GUIDANCE.

TOOK OUT THE PRECIP SUNDAY NIGHT AS WESTERN ATLANTIC HIGH PRESSURE
WILL REMAIN ENTRENCHED. WILL LEAVE PRECIP IN FOR MONDAY...BUT WOULD
NOT BE AT ALL SURPRISED TO SEE A DRY START TO THE NEXT WORK WEEK.

MARINE REMAINS QUIET.

.PHI...
DE...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING TODAY FOR ZONE DEZ001.
MD...NONE.
NJ...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING TODAY FOR ZONES NJZ015...NJZ017>019.
PA...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING TODAY FOR ZONES PAZ067>071.
MARINE...NONE.

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Jul 19, 12:59 PM EST, 11 minutes before

DEZ003-004-192100-

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT - VERY HEAVY RAIN
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MOUNT HOLLY NJ
159 PM EDT FRI JUL 19 2002

...HEAVY RAIN OVER COASTAL SUSSEX COUNTY DELAWARE...
...INTENSE LIGHTNING WITH THIS STORM...

A SERIES OF THUNDERSTORMS HAVE FORMED OVER THE DELAWARE BEACHES AND
ARE MOVING VERY SLOWLY. RADAR INDICATES THAT AS MUCH AS 3 INCHES OF
RAIN HAS FALLEN IN THE PAST HOUR. IF THESE STORMS DONT MOVE INTO
THE NEARSHORE WATERS SEVERAL MORE INCHES OF RAIN COULD FALL FLOODING
SOME OF THE ROADWAYS. FREQUENT LIGHTNING WAS ALSO OBSERVED WITH THIS
STORMS.

EBERWINE

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.

Lightning, Sussex

When: July 19, 1:10 PM EST to 1:30 PM EST
Where: Sussex County, Bethany Beach
Property damage: $250,000
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 38.683, -75.339 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

What these are

Lightning: A lightning strike that killed, injured or caused damage.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Delaware in 2002 Every state in 2002 This day in weather history Warnings in Delaware, July 2002

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5308651.