More than 2,000 in Butler and Warren are without power this evening after storms with heavy rain and lightning moved through the region.
As of 10:45 p.m., the Duke Energy outage web page reports that 1,365 customers have lost electric service in Butler while Duke and Dayton Power & Light report that 820 are without power in Warren. More than 8,000 were without service at the height of the evening’s stormy weather.
In the wake of a now-expired severe thunderstorm warning issued for Butler and Warren earlier in the evening, Callers reported seeing lightning and traffic on southbound Interstate 75, in the area of Middletown, slow to a crawl because of heavy rains. Downed wires were reported throughout Butler County, according to police and fire radio dispatch.
There have been several reports of trees down, including on Union Road in Middletown and along State Route 123 in the areas of Manchester Road and Robinson Vail Road, law enforcement officials told the weather service. Downed trees and branches have been reported in the areas of Monroe, Middletown and Springboro as well.
Trained spotters have reported wind gusts of up to 71 mph in Monroe and 60 mph southeast of Wilmington in Clinton County, according to the weather service.
Scattered power outages are being reported in Clark, Mercer, Miami, Montgomery, Logan, Union, Fayette and Clinton counties as well.
Remaining in the background of evening’s storms is a flash flood watch that remains in effect through 8 p.m. Wednesday for the northern parts of the Miami Valley — Clark, Champaign, Greene, Mercer, Miami, Shelby, Logan and Auglaize.
As of Tuesday morning, the rainfall total for July was at nearly 5 inches for some areas. Springboro’s inch count was 4.45, while Bellbrook stood at 4.20 and Miamisburg at 3.93 inches.
Xenia had seen 2.71 inches of rain by this morning, and Beavercreek 2.54 inches.
Wednesday will be hot and humid, but a boundary to the north is moving south and will allow the region to feel a lot better, said Storm Center 7 Meteorologist Rich Wirdzek. More showers and storms are possible in the afternoon as the cold front moves in.
“The more sun we get, the better chance storms could become severe,” said Simpson. “Both wind and hail will be a threat as well as more heavy rain. The worst of them should end about sunset, which is why the flash flood watch is until 8 p.m.,” he said.
“Some lighter rain may linger through part of the night, but we believe we’ll be dry by sunrise Thursday,” Simpson said.
Things will likely become much more comfortable Thursday as humidity lessens.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday will feature sunshine and low humidity for this time of year, Simpson said. Friday’s high is forecast at 81 degrees, Saturday’s at 85, and Sunday’s at 86 degrees.
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