A storm Thursday evening knocked down a tree and a telephone pole in front of Coolidge Public Library on Main Street in Solon. Approximately 200 Central Maine Power Co. customers in Somerset County were without electricity Thursday evening. Photo courtesy of Tetyana Shoval

AUGUSTA — Wild weather across central Maine Thursday brought powerful thunderstorms, rain and power outages, but no tornado in Solon as some suspected.

Sarah Jamison, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray, said Friday that Thursday’s weather environment was not favorable for a tornado. The damage in Somerset County was likely caused by something else.

“What might have happened was a wet microburst situation,” she said.

A storm Thursday evening knocked down a tree and a telephone pole in front of Coolidge Public Library on Main Street in Solon. Approximately 200 Central Maine Power Co. customers in Somerset County were without electricity Thursday evening. Photo courtesy of Tetyana Shoval

A microburst, she explained, happens when a thunderstorm builds and then collapses, bringing a large volume of rain that can be very localized and knock down trees.

The weather service received reports of microbursts in New Hampshire and parts of Maine, she said.

Along with the strong storms, power outages were reported across the region Thursday evening. Power was restored not long after.

Thursday’s storms came at the end of a three-day heat wave that broke a few high-temperature records.

The high temperatures set a record in Augusta on Thursday, for a high temperature and an overnight high temperature. Wednesday night’s low temperature of 71 degrees in Augusta set a record for an overnight high, and Thursday’s high temperature at 97 degrees was confirmed.

Jamison said it’s safe to say records were broken in Waterville as well, but the weather service does not have complete records for that area.

Looking ahead, she said the weather over the weekend will cool down with some scattered showers and thunderstorms on Sunday, but central Maine might be in for a warm July.

“July is shaping up to be what we usually see in July, where the heat is oppressive,” she said. “I’m not saying heat waves like this, but be prepared to have heat and reoccurrence into 90 degrees every so often for that time period and month.”