Community Corner

Was That a Dust Devil at Hazlet Swim Club The Other Day?

As astonished onlookers watched, lounge chairs went flying in a strange incident at the Hazlet Pool Club on Thursday.

People are still talking about a bizarre weather phenomenon witnessed by more than a few people around lunchtime Thursday on a cloudless summer day at the Hazlet Swim Club.

According to several eyewitnesses, something suddenly caused a heavy chaise lounge, towels and flip flops to go flipping high in the air. 

"It was one of those things you had to see to believe," said Hazlet Township CFO Thomas O'Hara, who personally saw the strange event unfold in front of his eyes. "T-shirts and towels went shooting 15 to 20 feet in the air," he said. "A lounge chair was picked up and tosssed and left rolling on its side."

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A Club manager, Kathy Devaney,saw it too, and rushed to the scene to confirm nobody was hurt. "It was over in seconds, and people were just standing there, waiting for something else to happen."

According to club member Jenn Petsch, something else did. "Approximately 10 minutes later, a whirlpool hit the pool causing parents to grab their children and hurry out," she said in an account emailed to Patch. "I watched as the whirlpool traveled across the pool and push water out of the pool. I quickly warned the older gentleman sitting in front of me that the 'strange wind is coming our way' and then all of his belongings and mine went flying into the air.

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"It looked as if there was an invisible man throwing items all over as there was no other winds or dark clouds!" 

According to facility records, Thursday's weather was noted as "nice out," with no clouds, not humid, and pleasant. 

Patch contacted noted New Jersey State Climatologist David Robinson for his theory. Going on the information that there was no storm present, "If skies were clear and conditions were hot it could have been something akin to a dust devil," he said Tuesday, in an email. 

Robinson pointed to this definition as dust devils on Wikipedia as a pretty good discussion of the phenomenon. 

"What you describe would be a minor version of one, and I'm not all that certain that conditions were particularly ripe for one," said the Rutgers University professor. "But we have been dry (despite being by a pool!) and hot, so there is my guess."


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