Storms Bring Hail, Wind, Heavy Rain To Mass.

Storms brought hail, high winds, and brief heavy rainfall that flooded roads and brought power outages across eastern Massachusetts on Wednesday.

The National Weather Service issued a brief tornado warning at mid-afternoon for the Lynn area on Boston's North Shore when radar indicated rotation. The National Weather Service says it's investigating a report of a funnel cloud in nearby Peabody just before 2 p.m.

Those storms moved offshore, but the weather service said a microburst of strong wind in a later wave in the Boston area downed about 100 trees in Arlington, also collapsing a garage and causing some roof damage.

Lynn District Fire Chief Jack Barry said his city was hit by downpours, high winds, isolated tree damage and golf ball-sized hail. But he said there were no confirmed sightings of a funnel cloud there, and no damage to indicate any destructive, sustained wind.

Hail up to 1.5 inches in diameter was reported on the North Shore. Two-inch hail was reported in Rehoboth as the storms moved across southeastern Massachusetts.

About 30,000 people were without power at the height of the storms.

Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island were under a severe thunderstorm watch until 9 p.m.

The storms came ahead of a front expected to bring cooler temperatures and lower humidity for the rest of the week.

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