Thousands in the region are without power after a fast moving thunderstorm broke trees and brought down wires Wednesday night.

Tom Kines, a senior meteorologist with AccuWeather, said the timing of Wednesday’s cold front is what made things more volatile.

“We had a cold front come through last evening, it was very warm, temperatures got up close to 90, it was on the humid side,” Kines said. “Anytime this time of year we have a cold front colliding with that type of an air mass, that’s usually a recipe for trouble; we saw the trouble yesterday evening with strong storms that came through, wind damage, wind gusts close to 50 miles per hour, some brief bouts of heavy rain.

“Obviously when it does happen, it’s a big deal. When you get these fronts coming into the area during the late afternoon (early) evening hours, really the time of the peak heating, that’s when the storms tend to be the worst.”

Trees and lines were knocked down throughout the area, but Franklin was hard hit.

Chairman of the township supervisors Fred Kemmerer Jr. posted on the community Facebook page: “Franklin Township got hit with high winds … please be cautious and do not take chances with fallen trees and wires.”

Rush Township had a lot of homes without power. Some were not predicted to be restored until 11 tonight.

At the height of the storm aftermath, PPL had 103,000 homes without power.

As of 8:30 a.m., there were 7,042 customers without power in Schuylkill County, including 1,195 in Rush Township, 607 in West Penn Township, 253 in Schuylkill Township, 182 in Coaldale, 55 in Walker Township, and 12 in Tamaqua. Route 309 on the Blue Mountain in West Penn Township is closed after a violent storm with high winds brought down several large trees across the roadway.

Carbon County had 2,450 without power, including 676 out in Franklin Township, 555 in Mahoning Township, 489 in Towamensing Township, 191 in Lansford, 171 in Summit Hill, 118 in Lower Towamensing Township, 52 in Kidder Township, 41 in East Penn Township, 32 in Weissport, and 29 in Jim Thorpe.

Monroe County had 2,091 without electricity, with 475 out in Eldred Township, 305 in Chestnuthill Township, and 257 in Polk Township,

In Lehigh County, 8,207 were without, including 22 in Washington Township.

Northampton County had 7,844, including 122 in Lehigh Township.

Jane George, Regional Affairs Director, PPL, said severe storms brought damaging winds and lighting across their 29-county service territory late Wednesday afternoon into the evening.

George said the storm caused damage to more than 1,100 individual locations.

She said crews worked through the night and restored power to more than 85,000 customers.

“Our crews (were) working throughout the night to restore power for customers,” George said. “We will continue to work as safety and quickly as possible around the clock until all customers are restored.”

George added they have “hundreds of personnel responding to the story, providing both field-based and back-office emergency response operations across our service territory. This includes line workers, foresters, damage assessors and call center staff.”

George added that while they continue to monitor and prepare, they encourage customers to remain connected and report any power outages online at pplelectric.com or text “Outage” to TXTPPL (898775).

Check the status of an outage and estimated restoration times online at pplelectric.com/outage.??

For information on storm safety, outage restoration priorities and more, visit pplelectric.com/outage. ?

George also urged customers to get prepared by making sure their mobile devices are fully charged before a storm event; having an emergency kit with food, water, medication and any pet supplies needed; people who have medical conditions requiring electricity should create a plan in case of an outage or emergency; and to check on elderly family members, neighbors and others who may need assistance during an outage period.

Kines said there is a silver lining to look forward to.

“The big news about today is that the humidity should lower some as the day wears on, it will not be as warm as it was yesterday,” he said. “There are some benefits from this cold front, and we’re seeing that today, and actually tomorrow is going to be another nice day as well.”

However, the break from the humidity figures to be but only a short reprieve, Kines said.

“There’s going to be another surge of humidity coming in over the weekend, especially the first half, so it’s not out of the question that we get another round of strong storms over the weekend,” he said.