Severe Weather crosses Connecticut

(WTNH) -- Severe Thunderstorm Warnings were posted for parts of Connecticut as the latest heat wave came to a stormy end. Tens of thousands were without electricity.

Rain and hailstones pelted parts of the state Wednesday afternoon. A National Weather Service trained spotter reported hail the size of a quarter in Cornwall.

A Severe Thunderstorm Watch was posted for all of Connecticut until 9:00 p.m. Earlier in the afternoon Severe Thunderstorm Warnings were posted for parts of all Connecticut counties. They have all now expired. 

Flash Flood warnings were also posted for parts of Hartford, Tolland and Windham counties until 6:15 p.m.

Connecticut Light & Power was dealing with more than 35,000 outages as of 5:00 p.m. By 11 p.m., outages were down to less 10,000.

There were major outages in a couple of towns. Naugatuck had more than 3,200 customers without power, some of them caused by a downed tree on Cherry Street.

In Cromwell, more than 60 percent of the town was without electricity. "The Northeast section of the town has been hit the hardest," Tom Roohr from the town said. [Link]

In Farmington, lightning struck homes on Laurel Lane and Cope Farms. No one was hurt and there was only minor property damage, the fire department said.

In the town of Sharon, Route 361 was closed because of a downed tree. [Interview with First Selectman]

"It's all hands on deck tonight," CL&P spokesman Mitch Gross said. Gross advised people to call 911 if they see downed wires.

At Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, there was a lightning strike at an intersection of two runways, and it caused some damage to the pavement. The runways were closed for a while, but have since reopened.

Airport officials said they have had numerous delays related to the weather.

The Danbury News-Times reported Danbury's fire and police departments briefly lost power due to thunderstorms, but that power was returning.

Before the storms cooled everything off, scorching temperatures hit the state for a third day. The thermometer at Bradley Airport hit a record 100 degrees. Once the storm started hitting the area, the temperature dropped into the 80s. It was 79 at 3:50 p.m.

A record high was also set in Bridgeport. It hit 95 degrees, tying the record set in 2006.

Also, because of the high temperatures, Metro-North reduced speeds on their trains to help prevent damage to the overhead catenary lines.