After three days of oppressive heat, with heat indexes hitting 121°F on Wednesday, a line of powerful thunderstorms rolled through South-Eastern Connecticut last night. With the extreme heat and humidity there was immense energy available for the storm, and it used it! Winds locally only gusted into the mid 20mph range but winds were reported in the region at gusts above 60mph. From the number of tree limbs down, I would say we got a dose of that wind as well. Edit: On the way to work today had to detour twice — adding 3 extra miles to the commute — because the roads were closed with large trees across them and work crews working hard to clear the way. I’d say the winds were definitely gusting well above the 28mph recorded officially in Groton.
The lightning from the storm put on quite a show, with many powerful bolts of ground to cloud lighting up the sky almost constantly during the height of the storm. Fortunately the storm also brought strong rains which have cooled the region off…right now it is only 73 °F, yesterday at 10am it was already 86 °F.
Of course with a storm like that the power circuits were battered, especially after the heat had done it’s damage. We were fortunate losing power only for 3–4 hours. Some areas are out in Mystic still. I met one of the managers of the Power company’s crisis center on her way home, she was wrung out from a long night trying to stay on top of the power failures across the state.
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