YORK, Maine — The National Weather Service confirmed a "downburst" hit York County Wednesday.
Residents in the greater York area described powerful winds, rain and even hail.
No, it was not a tornado. According to the NWS, downbursts are much more frequent than tornadoes. For every one tornado there are approximately 10 downburst damage reports.
A downburst is basically an area of quick moving air that exits the base of a mature thunderstorm. Most often these downbursts don't do any damage but since Wednesday's storm was severe with large hail, it had a powerful downburst component. The downburst in this case occurred as the storm neared the end of it's life cycle.
There were reports of similar outbreaks across New Hampshire and Massachusetts as well.
In Maine, the storm brought down dozens of trees and power lines across a number of miles. There were several reports of damage to homes and cars from fallen trees.
Central Maine Power worked throughout the night to restore power to nearly 10,000 customers.
Officials said no one injuries were reported.