Lightning, Monmouth
- When
- July 19, 2:00 PM EST
- Where
- Monmouth County, Howell
- Reported by
- NEWSPAPER
- Coordinates
- 40.288, -74.158 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)
Lightning Strike in New Jersey, July 19, 2002
Lightning struck a boat in storage in Howell Township. The ensuing fire took about 10 minutes to get under control.
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
The toll
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- None recorded
- 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.
Lightning struck a boat in storage in Howell Township. The ensuing fire took about 10 minutes to get under control. A transformer near the township police station was also struck by lightning.
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 55 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Jul 19, 10:05 AM EST, 3 hours 55 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, 1 hour 1 minute 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 Philadelphia radar (KDIX), 44 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 18:57 UTC.
Event by event
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
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
- Flash Flooding in West Virginia, July 19, 2002
- Lightning Strike in Delaware, July 19, 2002
- Lightning Strike in New York, July 19, 2002
- Flash Flood in Indiana, July 19, 2002
- Hail and Damaging Wind in Massachusetts, July 19, 2002
- Flash Flooding and Damaging Wind in Ohio, July 19, 2002
- Hail and Damaging Winds in Ohio, July 19, 2002
- Damaging Winds in Georgia, July 19, 2002
- Lightning Strike in New Jersey, July 19, 2002
- Hail and Damaging Winds in Kansas, July 19, 2002
- Damaging Wind and Lightning Strike in Alabama, July 19, 2002
- Flooding and Damaging Winds in Ohio, July 19, 2002
More
Every storm in New Jersey in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyWarnings in New Jersey, 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: 5308656.