About 1,100 W. Pa. residents still without power; forecast has sunshine returning

Electric utility crews had restored power to all but about 1,100 Western Pennsylvania residents Thursday evening after severe thunderstorms blew through the region late Wednesday, according to area utility companies.

At 7:30 p.m., West Penn Power reported 666 customers without power in a nine-county region while Duquesne Light Co. reported 447 customers impacted.

At 5:45 a.m., West Penn Power reported almost 2,000 customers without power in a nine-county region while Duquesne Light Co. reported 26 customers impacted.

Most of the West Penn outages were reported in Fayette County in the morning where 947 utility customers had outages with the majority in Menallen and Henry Clay townships. According to the utility’s website, service to some of those areas would not be restored until this evening.

Minimal outages were reported in Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Greene, Somerset, Washington and Westmoreland varying between less than 5 to 33 customers without power, according to the utility website.

Despite tornado watches being issued Wednesday for multiple counties in the region, Jenna Lake, meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Moon Township said none were reported in Pennsylvania during the storm.

“We did have reports of hail in the Morgantown, W.Va., area,” she said.

Thank you Melissa for sharing this picture of hail southwest of Morgantown, WV. This was near Mountainview road. pic.twitter.com/3oRjynpykM

— NWS Pittsburgh (@NWSPittsburgh) June 9, 2022

“Friday should be beautiful,” Lake said. “Sun and the high should reach 75 degrees.”