Some saw funnel clouds, but it was just a storm

Trees are down, but there’s no free firewood, By Mark J. Yablonsky FRANKLIN — A brief, yet potent, burst of high-speed winds, brought on by the sudden furious thunderstorm last Friday afternoon, caused notable damage in part of the borough and in other areas around the county. The storm hit shortly before 3 p.m. on Aug. 21, felling a number of trees here and in other parts of the county. No injuries were reported. Many in Franklin thought a cyclone had passed through, but Eskil “Skip” Danielson, Sussex County’s emergency management director, instead classified the powerful disturbance as a “microburst of straight-line winds.” Also known as convective wind gusts, straight-line winds are the result of thunderstorms and are capable of damage comparable to a tornado. “There were reports of funnel clouds being seen in Stillwater and the Franklin-Ogdensburg area, but the National Weather Service’s Doppler radar did not record it as of this time,” Danielson said late Monday morning. “The best we can tell is that it was straight-line winds. There were a lot of reports of damage in a lot of the towns.” In Franklin, both Woodland Avenue and areas around the Franklin Pond were hit by the winds, which had begun blowing up in advance of the storm. The damage kept crews from Franklin’s Road Department hard at work during the weekend and afterward, officials said. There were confirmations that the parking lots at Weis Market, off Route 23, had also sustained minor damage. “We have a lot of trees down, the roadways were cleaned out Saturday and my people are going to be busy the next couple of days, picking up debris,” said borough administrator Richard R. Wolak. “We’re only addressing municipal property. The owners of private property are going to have to make their own arrangements.” While there are downed trees, that doesn’t translate to free firewood. Wolak said that no one will be allowed to come onto municipal property and cut wood. Twisting winds Mayor Paul Crowley, a Woodland Road resident who was at home when the storm hit, said he thought it was a cyclone. “Personally, I did because of the way the trees were twisted,” Crowley said Sunday night. “(I heard) high winds and a roaring sound. I didn’t realize how damaging it was until the emergency management people called me.” Others in Franklin described the storm as sudden and that in one or two cases, power outages did occur. Several other countywide towns, including parts of Vernon, Newton, Sparta, Stillwater and Stanhope, sustained some power outages. Danielson said that one part of Walpack was still affected by that problem Monday. Danielson agreed that a microburst is a “cousin” of a tornado, and that a straight-line wind can have the power of a tornado and can go up to “EF (Enhanced Fujita/cyclonic) levels. In particular, since thunderstorms are the product of cold air fronts moving onto existing warm air fronts, straight-line winds can occur, Danielson said. It is the differences between converging air fronts that creates such atmospheric violence, Danielson said.