Over 2,000 National Grid customers remain without power in the Berkshires following overnight storms.
06.08.2011 | HOLYOKE - Lightning cuts a path across the sky above Mater Dolorosa Church during Wednesday evening's storm.SPRINGFIELD - Over 2,000 National Grid customers remain without power Thursday morning following a series of thunderstorms that moved through the region overnight.
Western Massachusetts Electric Co. reported 70 customers without power in Springfield and scattered outages in the Berkshires Thursday morning.
Hardest hit were Lenox and Stockbridge, with 1,221 and 968 outages reported, respectively, as of about 9:45 a.m., according to National Grid.
Lenox should have its power restored by 1 a.m. and Stockbridge, 2 p.m., according to the National Grid website.
Western Massachusetts, meanwhile, is at risk for severe thunderstorms later this afternoon as temperatures push the 95 degree mark, abc40 /Fox 6 meteorologist Dan Brown said.
The biggest threats, Brown said, will be damaging straight-line winds and large hail.
“As these storms build in the atmosphere they will likely tap into strong winds aloft,” Brown said. “These winds could then be driven to the ground likely not in a tornadic nature but in more of a straight-line motion, perhaps stronger than 60 mph in some locations.”
Such winds could bring down tree limbs, some trees and power lines, Brown said.
Brown stressed that such conditions are just a possibility “and not everyone will be dealing with these conditions.”