A pop-up thunderstorm delivered a huge punch to parts of the Lehigh Valley Friday evening with winds tossing truck trailers, splitting trees and tearing part of the roof from a warehouse.
The storm developed around 6 p.m. and left a path of damage through an industrial park along the 2400 block of Brodhead Road.
At least a half dozen trailers lined up outside warehouses for Crayola and Osram Sylvania were tossed onto their sides or thrown out of their parking spaces like toys.
A tree was left splintered in the parking lot and a strip of the roof at the Crayola warehouse was peeled back like a piece of tape exposing the building inside.
A witness described the storm as a tornado, but NBC10 First Alert Weather Chief Meteorologist Glenn "Hurricane" Schwartz says straight line winds were the culprit. Wind gusts of 57 mph were clocked at nearby Lehigh Valley International Airport around 5:25 p.m.
Trees fell in several neighborhoods in Bethlehem, South Whitehall and Spring Township. An area of Jackson Boulevard in Spring Twp. near Stanford had large trees on top of cars and next to houses.
There were no reports of injuries.
