Severe thunderstorms moved across the Lehigh Valley late Wednesday afternoon, bringing high winds and power outages.
Some of the storms produced wind gusts as high as 60 mph, according to the National Weather Service.
The wind downed tree limbs and power lines, causing thousands of power outages. As of 5:50 p.m., PPL was reporting nearly 6,000 customers without power in Lehigh and Northampton counties.
Most of the outages were in the Bethlehem area, with around 1,400 on the city’s west side alone. Lower Saucon Township had about 1,500, according to the utility’s outage map. Met-Ed was reporting around 300 outages in Northampton County.
In Allentown, lightning reportedly sparked a fire in the roof of an apartment building, according to the Lehigh Valley Breaking News Facebook page. The fire on the 600 block of North 22nd Street was reported just before 5:30 p.m.
As the storms moved through, they prompted several severe thunderstorm warnings. A severe thunderstorm watch remains in effect for much of eastern Pennsylvania through 9 p.m.
The storms come as a cold front moves through the region, breaking the 90-degree weather of the last several days.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.