Manchester Teacher Struck By Lightning Amid Thundersnow: Police

MANCHESTER, NJ — A middle school teacher who was supervising students getting on buses at dismissal was struck by lightning in thundersnow on Wednesday, police confirmed. The eighth-grade teacher was standing outside Manchester Township Middle School at about 2:30 p.m. when the umbrella she was holding was struck, Manchester Township Capt. Todd Malland said.

Malland said the 33-year-old woman from Toms River was standing on the sidewalk with other staff members when the lightning strike happened and was escorted into the nurse's office by two other teachers.

She was alert and conscious but had tingling in her hand and arm, Malland said. She was taken to Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune, for treatment but her injuries were not life-threatening, he said.

Manchester Township Schools Superintendent David Trethaway said the teacher was undergoing tests and was in stable condition.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to our staff member and family and we are all hoping for a speedy and full recovery," Trethaway said in a statement on the district's website.

It was one of a number of incidents that happened Wednesday during the thunder and lightning that shook homes and rattled nerves across New Jersey during the snowstorm.

Sarah Marino of Matawan was sitting in her sunroom listening to the storm when she heard a crack that wasn't lightning.

"I got up and ran," she said, as a tree came down within inches of the window of her sunroom. "Another foot and I would have been mushed."

In Lakewood, a fire at a small business park started during the thunderstorm. It was not clear whether it was the result of lightning or from activities at a welding shop in the park; police said the man who reported the fire heard a loud explosion before seeing the fire.

Reports of thundersnow came from multiple towns, including Point Pleasant Beach, Brick, Toms River, Lakewood, Howell and Berkeley Township, with several loud claps that followed lightning strikes. (You can see one in the video at the top of the article; watch for the lightning about 10 seconds in.)

Read more: VIDEO: Thundersnow In Point Pleasant Beach (And Lightning)

According to the National Weather Service, thunderstorms can happen in the winter when there is relatively strong instability and abundant moisture above the surface, such as above a warm front. A (relatively) warm front was present bringing moisture off the Atlantic as the cold front moving east from the Midwest arrived in the area on Wednesday.

The Weather Channel says thunderstorms accompanied by snow are different from the thunderstorms we see in the spring or summer. Those storms "are usually rather tall, narrow storms containing a rising updraft of warm, moist air that has risen in a layer from near the surface that may go upward to 40,000 feet or more."

The Weather Channel explained it further: "In snowstorms, the clouds and precipitation is usually much lower and the clouds more shallow. Most thundersnow events develop when ordinary flat, layered snow clouds develop upward bumps or 'turrets.' When the air above the initial cloud layer is relatively cool and dry, and when the added cooling and lifting is strong, a shallow layer just above the original flat cloud can become unstable. This makes it favorable for 'elevated convection' – showers or thunderstorms."

When the temperature is such that both snowflakes and small hailstones form, the interaction between them can cause electrical charges similar to static electricity, and that produces the lightning in the snowstorm, the Weather Channel says.

The lightning was enough to prompt warnings from the Ocean County sheriff's department for people to stay off the roads and to shelter in place.

Thundersnow reports came from as far away as the New Jersey Turnpike. In Point Pleasant Beach, one man recording the waves near the Manasquan Inlet captured a flash of lightning and the thunder amid the snow. You can see that below.

Photos: via Barnegat Bay Island, NJ and Sarah Marino