{"id":17397,"date":"2025-04-18T08:33:30","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T12:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/?p=17397"},"modified":"2025-04-18T08:33:30","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T12:33:30","slug":"seaside-parks-lightning-detection-system-to-run-year-round-24-hours-per-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/2025\/04\/seaside-parks-lightning-detection-system-to-run-year-round-24-hours-per-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Seaside Park’s Lightning Detection System to Run Year-Round, 24 Hours Per Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

A lightning detection sensor array in Brick Township, May 2023. (Photo: Shorebeat)<\/p><\/div>\n

Seaside Park officials have worked behind the scenes with the borough\u2019s insurance carrier to hatch a plan that will allow lightning detection systems along the ocean to work year-round, 24 hours per day.<\/p>\n

The borough, like many island communities, adopted the use of automated lightning detection systems following the tragic death of a lifeguard in South Seaside Park during the summer of 2021. The systems were first deployed by Brick Township and later adopted by Toms River, Seaside Park and Lavallette, among other communities. In Seaside Park, however, officials almost immediately questioned the part-time functionality of the system \u2013 not due to any technical constraints, but because the borough\u2019s insurance carrier required a written plan that demonstrates what the borough should do when lightning is detected. In other words, a cadre of public officials were to be notified and actively work to rush people off the beach when the system spurred an alert.<\/p>\n

Borough officials pushed back, along with residents, asking why the system would be turned off late at night or during the entire post-Labor Day season, when personnel like lifeguards would not be on duty. Elected officials, led by Councilwoman Gina Condos, argued that these would be the times members of the public would be most vulnerable and would, arguably, benefit most from an automated system alerting them to the danger of lightning in the area. After more than a year of working with the Ocean County Joint Insurance Fund and borough attorney Steven Zabarsky on a revised plan, officials adopted an updated plan that will see the system remain active to protect beachgoers outside of regular \u201clifeguard hours\u201d during the height of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we put the lightning detection system in place, we limited the hours based on the way our lightning action plan stated,\u201d said Condos. \u201cBased on feedback as well as our own opinion, we wanted to increase the amount of coverage when it is active.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lightning detection system is physically mounted along the boardwalk and activates a strobe light when lightning is detected within a certain number of miles, depending on how the system is configured. It uses built-in sensors as well as data culled from remote sources. The system is also capable of alerting lifeguards through a mobile app and emitting a loud siren. Seaside Park\u2019s system is also capable of being networked with detection systems from neighboring communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not easy to get everybody aligned,\u201d said Condos, explaining that beyond the action plan required by the insurance carrier, officials did not want residents to be disturbed by sirens in the middle of the night or, for that matter, in the middle of the winter.<\/p>\n

The borough\u2019s revised plan calls for a combination of strategies. During the summer season, both the strobes and sirens will be enabled from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. After 9 p.m., only the strobes will activate. From October through April, the sirens will be disabled completely. The system as a whole, however, will now run 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis way it won\u2019t prevent people from going to sleep, but if you\u2019re out walking the boardwalk in the morning or out there fishing in the evening, you\u2019ll be covered,\u201d said Condos.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A lightning detection sensor array in Ortley Beach, May 2023. (Photo: Shorebeat)<\/p><\/div>\n

The borough made it a priority to fine-tune its plan over the course of the last year, an effort largely led on a day-to-day basis by Borough Administrator Karen Kroon.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year we had to install it and get it going, so we went with a plan, knowing we wanted to adjust it and make the hours longer \u2013 fine tune it this year,\u201d said Councilman Joseph Connor. \u201cThis will be broken down to our staff this summer \u2013 lifeguards, beach control, the police \u2013 and everyone will know what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kroon said signage along the ocean will explain the system to beachgoers, and each sign will come with a QR code that can be scanned by mobile phones that will provide guidance as to what to do when the system activates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a great deal of research done through the committee,\u201d said Mayor John Peterson, complimenting his colleagues.<\/p>\n

Kroon said, in response to a question from a resident, that the borough may look into the possibility of activating a strobe somewhere near the bayfront as well in the future.<\/p>\n

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Seaside Park officials have worked behind the scenes with the borough\u2019s insurance carrier to hatch a plan that will allow lightning detection systems along the ocean to work year-round, 24 hours per day. The borough, like many island communities, adopted the use of automated lightning detection systems following the tragic death of a lifeguard in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[1959,2174,32],"class_list":["post-17397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seaside-government","category-seaside-heights","tag-featured","tag-lightning-detection-system","tag-seaside-park-nj-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/beach_lightning_detection_system_1191-scaled.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgsn9q-4wB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17397"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17398,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17397\/revisions\/17398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}