Severe thunderstorms, including hail and heavy rain, lead to power outages

Severe thunderstorms rolled over much of the state on Monday night and hail fell in some areas in the late evening. Scattered power outages were reported as a result of the storms, many of which featured frequent flashes of lightning and strong wind gusts.

The National Weather Service in Caribou issued a tornado warning at 7:05 p.m. for eastern and central Penobscot County, particularly near Winn, 10 miles northeast of Lincoln. Earlier, at 5:30 p.m., the weather service had issued another tornado warning in eastern and central Piscataquis County in the Katahdin region. No sightings of a tornado were reported.

“Tomorrow we will have a better idea of what actually took place and where, once we get a chance to review everything,” meteorologist Tony Migone said Monday night.

The weather service also issued a severe thunderstorm warning in south and central Penobscot County, with a concentration of activity near Old Town. Bangor was hit with heavy rain lit up by frequent lightning flashes later in the evening.

The lightning before the rain’s arrival caused Bass Park Director Mike Dyer to consider shutting down the Bangor State Fair early, but that ultimately did not happen.

“It has gone on all around us,” Dyer said in a brief telephone interview, adding that he and other staff closely monitored the storm’s progress via the Doppler radar images on the National Weather Service’s Web site.

Though lightning could be seen in the distance, the strikes never came close enough to Bass Park to warrant early closure, Dyer said.

Hail pounded down south of Dover-Foxcroft in Piscataquis County, Migone said.

“Hail usually doesn’t cover large areas. It usually develops and falls apart, rebuilding a new storm system later,” the meteorologist said.

By 10:30 p.m., Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. and Central Maine Power had reported 33 towns throughout the state that had outages, and the number was still rising.

Trees had fallen across power lines in numerous towns. In Hudson, where a tree fell on power lines, blocking off Route 221, Bangor Hydro workers decided not to fix the lines until they could safely do so without the dangers of lightning.