As great as it is living in a state with four discernible seasons, one of the few downsides of that is the fact that storms and severe winds could strike at any time.

In the winter blizzard conditions often pop up. In the spring and summer, you worry about thunderstorms, and as summer continues into fall, there's the dreaded 'Hurricane Season' which has not been kind to us in the last ten years.

Whenever the weather forecast is expected to be an issue, the possibility of widespread power outages increases. And that's not even including the electrical grid problems we face during heat waves.

With all that being said, there's now a handy resource to track how many power outages are impacting New Jersey at any given time. You can search by county or by power provider.

Simply click here to see the PowerOutage.us database for yourself. You may be better off saving this website as a bookmark on your mobile device as you'd likely not be able to access it from a laptop or computer if you are dealing with a power outage in the moment. With smartphones, you can at least revert back to data coverage.

In addition to New Jersey, PowerOutage.us does the same thing nationally. According to their website, they say they collect, record, and aggregate live power outage data from utilities all over the United States, with the goal to create the single most reliable and complete source of power outage information available.

With storms seemingly becoming more and more severe in the mid-Atlantic over the last decade, this could serve as a vital resource.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 producer, writer, and host Joe Votruba. Any opinions expressed are his own.

Questions, corrections, or comments? Send Joe Votruba an email. Follow Joe on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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