Severe thunderstorms brought gusty winds, heavy rain and lots of lightning to parts of northern and central Connecticut, leaving thousands without power around the state.
A severe thunderstorm watch issued for Tolland and Windham counties expired at 8 p.m., and severe thunderstorm warnings were issued for parts of the state earlier this evening as storms moved northeast along Interstate 91 in Enfield and into Massachusetts.
At the height of the storm, Connecticut Light & Power reported more than 700 outages in Ellington and 500 in Enfield, along with 200 outages in Suffield, nearly 300 in Simsbury and scattered outages in Canton, Bloomfield, Windsor Locks, Tolland and other areas.
Route 83/Somers Road was closed for hours north of Strawberry Road in Ellington near the Somers town line following reports of trees and wires down.
The storms came as several towns, including Enfield and Wolcott, were still cleaning up from severe weather on Sunday.
Local
Nick Amato, of Wolcott, and his family spent Monday cleaning up after a large tree came down on their house and camper.
"It sounded like a freight train. Everybody says when you hear the freight train, head to the basement, but it happened so quickly, we didn't have any reaction time. It just came through and then it took off again," he said.
The National Weather Service determined that an EF-0 tornado touched down on Sunday. As of Monday morning, several roads remained closed.
Interstate 95 northbound in Old Saybrook was closed in the right-most lane between exits 66 and 67 after a rollover tractor trailer crash early Monday morning.
There is a potential for scattered thunderstorms across the state in the afternoon and early evening, according to NBC Connecticut Meteorologist Darren Sweeney, who has declared a First Alert Weather Day.
There is a small risk of tornadoes, he said, following Sunday's weak tornado in Wolcott. The storms could bring downpours and possible flash flooding to parts of the state.
The storms are expected to lull this afternoon, possibly flaring up again at 3 or 4 p.m. with scattered storms and affecting the evening commute.
[HAR] Damage from Sunday Storms
Temperatures will likely be in the 80s.
