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Severe weather leaves trail of damage in NJ, more expected for NYC's July Fourth fireworks
By
Ryan Kost
and
David Giambusso
Published Jul 4, 2026
Modified Jul 4, 2026
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Gary Hershorn/Getty Images
By
Ryan Kost
and
David Giambusso
Published Jul 4, 2026
Modified Jul 4, 2026
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A line of thunderstorms tore through New York and New Jersey Friday night, downing trees, knocking out power and delivering wind gusts up to 71 miles per hour — and the region could see a repeat Saturday evening.
New York City bounced back quickly from the wild storms with fewer than a thousand Con Ed customers out by Saturday afternoon — down from about 10,000 at the peak of the storm.
But northern and central New Jersey were still reeling Saturday from the damage of the powerful storm amid an historic heat wave. State officials said 19 people have died from suspected heat-related illnesses; more than 140,000 residents were still without power Saturday and some of NJ Transit's lines will be down even into next week.
"Unfortunately, we're not out of the woods yet," Gov. Mikie Sherrill told reporters Saturday afternoon. "We're gonna keep seeing high temperatures and potentially severe thunderstorms tonight and over the rest of the holiday weekend."
The storms moved fast enough to spare the metro area of serious flooding, according to meteorologist Alexa Maines, but tree damage tied up infrastructure throughout the region. By Saturday morning, New York’s Downed Tree Taskforce was patrolling the city to clear roads of any debris, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on X.
Kris Kolluri, the head of NJ Transit, said downed trees were the biggest culprit tying up train service.
"On the [Morris and Essex] line alone, we lost sixty trees, catenaries and signal systems," he said Saturday afternoon. "That weather was so severe last night — in a span of twenty to thirty minutes, it's caused extraordinary damage."
Con Edison said late Friday that it had restored power to more than 93,000 customers who had lost access due to the storms and extreme heat. The city opened overnight cooling centers for New Yorkers who had lost power, the mayor said.
PSE&G, which mostly serves North Jersey, reported just over a thousand “active” outages Saturday morning, after a peak of about 24,000 outages through the night. JCP&L, which serves the western and central parts of the state, still had roughly 140,000 customers still without power in the baking heat Saturday. As of 11 p.m. Friday the state had roughly 250,000 power outages. State officials said outages in western and central New Jersey could last days.
Round two of the wild weather is more likely to land between 5 and 11 p.m., meaning storms could overlap with the city's fireworks display set to begin at 9:25 p.m., according to forecasts.
“Any storms could produce another round of damaging wind gusts and heavy rainfall,” Maines said. “If people are outside, they want to be aware if there's lightning nearby, because if there is, they should seek shelter.”
Temperatures will reach mid-to-high 90s Saturday and an “extreme heat warning” in effect until 9 p.m..
Visits to emergency rooms have been steadily creeping up in New York City through the week. The city health department said Saturday there were 145 heat-related visits to city emergency rooms Friday, up from 99 the day before and 43 Wednesday. The city has not put out official numbers for any heat-related deaths.
In New Jersey, health officials suspect 19 people have died due to heat-related issues and they emphasized it's not just afflicting the elderly. People have found younger adults outside, at home without air conditioning or trapped in a car.
"This is not a typical summer heat wave," said N.J. Health Commissioner Dr. Raynard Washington Saturday. "And it's really important that we all take it serious because it can become life-threatening really quickly."
Temps are expected to settle into the 80s Sunday and drop to the high 70s for the early part of next week, according to the National Weather Service.
“It'll probably be noticeably cooler,” Maines said.
Showers and scattered thunderstorms are expected to last from Saturday night through Tuesday of next week, according to forecasts.
Friday night’s storm has already curbed part of the July Fourth festivities — a "premier access" viewing pavilion on Governors Island for the tall ships display was closed due to storm damage.
This is a developing story and has been updated with new information.
Tagged
Health and Science
new york city
weather
Ryan Kost
Ryan Kost is a reporter on the day-of news desk, where he covers breaking news and writes enterprise stories about jails, courts, prosecutors and government accountability. His work focuses on the public institutions that shape life in New York. Before joining the newsroom, he lead a multi-part investigation with Columbia Journalism Investigations and New York Focus into how New York prosecutors handle wrongful conviction claims. He's also been a staff writer at The San Francisco Chronicle, The Associated Press and The Oregonian. Got a tip? Signal: ryankost.20
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David Giambusso
David is the editor of the Day-of desk. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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