Thousands without power after severe thunderstorms hit central, northeastern and southern Wisconsin

Natalie Brophy
Appleton Post-Crescent

More than 31,000 Wisconsin homes were without power Tuesday night after severe thunderstorms hit central, northeastern and southern portions of the state. 

As of 11 p.m. Tuesday, round 10,000 Wisconsin Public Service Corp. customers were without power, mostly in Brown and Winnebago counties. Another 21,000 customers from Alliant Energy lost power, with many of the outages in Fond Du Lac and Sheboygan counties. 

The storms hit the state Tuesday night, sometimes accompanied by strong winds and hail. Some powerlines and trees were damaged. 

The National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm watch until midnight forBrown, Calumet, Columbia, Dane, Dodge, Fond du Lac, Green, Green Lake, Iowa, Jefferson, Kenosha, Kewaunee, Lafayette, Manitowoc, Marquette, Milwaukee, Outagamie, Ozaukee, Portage, Racine, Rock, Sauk, Sheboygan, Walworth, Washington, Waukesha, Waupaca, Waushara, Winnebago and Wood counties. 

Earlier in the day, three Wisconsin cities broke daily high temperature records, according to the National Weather Service. The high in Green Bay was 93 degrees Tuesday, beating the old record set in 1944 by 3 degrees. In Wisconsin Rapids, the temperature got up to 94 degrees, beating out the 1944 record by 1 degree. The previous record high for the day in Rhinelander was 89 degrees in 1934. On Tuesday, it was 90 degrees. 

Contact Natalie Brophy at (715) 216-5452 or nbrophy@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @brophy_natalie