BETHLEHEM, Pa. — A severe thunderstorm warning issued for parts of the Lehigh Valley wasted no time in hitting its mark.
Hail and heavy wind swept through the Bethlehem area Friday afternoon, knocking out power as temperatures continued to plunge into the 40s from a high around 60 in the morning.
A wind gust hit 51 mph at 2:35 p.m. at Lehigh Valley International Airport.
Thousands in the Lehigh Valley were without power, including Christkindlmarkt — the popular Christmas market at SteelStacks in Bethlehem.
It shut down and instructed shoppers to leave because of the power outage, visitors said. ArtsQuest said the market would be closed for the reminder of the evening and expects to reopen at its regular time at 10 a.m. Saturday.
At 4 p.m. Friday, PPL reported about 4,000 in the dark in Lehigh County and almost 5,500 in Northampton County. Bethlehem was hardest hit. About 3,800 were without power there, and over 1,200 in Allentown, PPL reported.
Another utility company, Met-Ed, reported about 200 without power in Lehigh and Northampton counties.
Across its service area, which stretches over nearly 30 counties in Pennsylvania, PPL reported over 45,000 without power.
The National Weather Service said a severe thunderstorm warning for the Bethlehem and Easton areas — most of Northampton County, actually — would remain in effect until 3:45 p.m.
The area is under a high wind warning until 10 p.m. — with west winds of 20 to 30 mph and gusts up to 60 mph, the weather service said.
Traffic signals were out in South Bethlehem and at least one was down — at Sixth and Walnut streets — due to high winds in Allentown.
