Record-breaking warm weather and a mischievous storm system brought a combination of thunderstorms, flooding and wind to New England, sending emergency crews scurrying throughout the region.

According to the National Weather Service in Taunton, Mass., the mercury climbed past records in Hartford, Conn., Concord, N.H., Worcester, Mass. and Boston.

And the high winds – more than 50 mph in many locations – almost knocked over a church steeple in New Bedford, Mass., and wreaked havoc with power companies, halting electricity for thousands of Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Hampshire homes.

In Maine, crews from Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. were on the scene at numerous power outages Sunday afternoon and evening.

Bob Toole, Hydro’s outage coordinator, said 150 outage reports had been received by 5:30 p.m. The actual number of people affected by power outages probably was in the thousands, Toole said. More outages were expected as the wind picked up Sunday evening.

Bangor Hydro crews expected to work throughout the night to repair damage mainly caused by fallen tree limbs on power lines, Toole said.

Areas where widespread outages were reported included Deer Isle, Stonington, Lamoine and Trenton. Other sporadic outages were reported on outer Ohio Street in Bangor, the south side of Pushaw Lake in Orono, the King’s Mountain area of Orrington and the Hudson Hill area in Hudson.

Central Maine Power Co. reported about 1,600 outages, mostly in the Brunswick area. Sporadic outages also were reported for CMP customers in Dexter, Sangerville, Ripley, Waldoboro, Washington, Dresden, Southport, Nobleboro, Harpswell and Saco.

The stormy weather hampered flights at Bangor International Airport. USAir managed to get one flight off the ground from BIA early Sunday morning but nothing arrived or left the airport the rest of the day. One American Eagle flight departed shortly after noon. Two arriving flights were expected Sunday night, one from Pittsburgh, the other from Cincinnati, but both were expected to be late, according to a passenger service manager.

Although dozens of vehicles slipped and slid off slushy roads in central Maine over the weekend, most of the crashes were without injury.

Rain, fog and even deer were blamed for a series of accidents that began late Saturday night when freezing temperatures gave way to a warming trend that resulted in a rise to 55 degrees Sunday. This “heat wave” created dense fog and huge puddles where culverts and drains had been blocked by snow.

In Dexter, Rebecca Giles’ 32nd birthday was spoiled when she lost control of her 1996 Volkswagen Jetta on Route 94, also known as the Garland Road, just before 9 a.m. Sunday. Although the roads had been sanded, according to Dexter Officer Kevin Wintle, Giles’ car apparently slid on slush, striking a telephone pole.

Wintle said he had just passed Giles as he drove in the opposite direction and came upon the accident within seconds after it happened after he turned around and retraced his route.

Giles was taken to Mayo Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft by Dexter Ambulance for treatment of head injuries.

“The injuries did not appear life-threatening,” Wintle said. Giles was wearing a seat belt and Wintle said the accident remains under investigation.

Piscataquis County sheriff’s dispatcher Fred Brawn said the warming trend apparently got the deer herds moving. Six car-deer accidents were reported overnight Sunday, he said.

In Canaan, a vehicle sheared off a utility pole on Hill Road just before 9 a.m. Sunday, blocking the road but causing no injuries.

Police departments in Skowhegan, Waterville and Newport also were dealing with cars sliding off the road, but no injury-causing accidents.

Charlie Foley, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton, said the unseasonable combination made for a “pretty active weather day.”

“It is unusual,” he said. “Normally, we don’t start off with the copious amounts of precipitation and the numerous thunderstorms. This is very atypical weather for December.”

In Boston, the temperature peaked at 64 F by afternoon, which broke the 1984 record of 62. Hartford reached 63, breaking its record of 61 set the same year, and in Worcester it was 58 – one degree above its earlier record. Temperatures in Concord, N.H., also reached 63, two degrees higher than its record of 61. Temperature readings in Maine were in the low to mid-50s.

The wind knocked out power for about 4,000 National Grid electric customers in portions of Rhode Island, central and western Massachusetts, and north and south of Boston.

National Grid spokeswoman Deborah Drew said the company was on alert for continuing weather problems.

“We are calling in all our crews and engineers,” Drew said. “We are preparing.”

By midday, about 2,200 homes in western Massachusetts, 25,000 in Connecticut and 2,000 in Maine had lost power.

In New Hampshire, strong winds caused high gusts atop the 6,288-foot summit of Mount Washington.

“This weather is at times more like summer weather than winter weather,” said Tod Hagan, a Mount Washington weather observer. “We’re experiencing thunder and lightning. You don’t usually have thunder storms in the winter.”

Hagan said the Mount Washington summit had a high wind speed of 98 mph Sunday morning. It also had a record-high temperature of 40 degrees for the day.

Despite slick roadways, state police reported few serious accidents. But high winds set off alarms and felled trees and wires across Connecticut and Massachusetts.

“Numerous, numerous, numerous,” was how Trooper Paul Davis stationed in Tolland, Conn., described the volume of weather-related reports.

On the water, the U.S. Coast Guard in Portland had received no distress or trouble calls, while the Coast Guard in Boston reported 8-foot waves off the coast of Massachusetts. The Coast Guard managed to tow to safety a fishing vessel whose rudder broke off the coast of Provincetown, Mass.

There also was a marine storm warning in effect for the coastal waters of Maine and New Hampshire.

The control tower at Boston’s Logan Airport also reported flight delays.

Winds did cause mischief in southeastern city of New Bedford, Mass., where wind caused an already-listing church steeple to tilt dangerously.

Fire crews used a crane to stabilize the steeple at the Our Lady of Fatima Church, and then lowered it to the ground. No injuries were reported.