Homes and businesses should be back to normal today after yesterday's severe early morning storm caused power blackouts for some areas.

Belco reported that about 300 homes were left without electricity after lightning struck a number of transformers in various locations across the Island.

Two transformers went down on the Aubery Estate, and four were affected by the lightning strike near to Trinity Church Road, all at Bailey's Bay.

Residents living on Middle Road in Devonshire were also affected when two transformers were sent out of action near to Whitney Institute; another transformer went out on Washington Street in Hamilton.

A series of thunderstorms whipped up literally above the Island at about 3 a.m. yesterday, causing gusts up to 40 knots and widespread lightning and thunder.

Meteorologist at Bermuda Weather Service Mark Guishard said the thunderstorms developed virtually on top of the Island, thanks to an approaching cold front.

The temperature dropped to 62 F and 0.19 inches of rain was recorded at the airport, although he said it was likely that more rain fell over different parts of the Island and offshore.

He said: “The culprit for this system was warm air ahead of the approaching front, converging at the surface and rising swiftly.

“This kind of sudden development can produce towering thunderheads, and often worse weather than the passage of the front itself.

“Yesterday's cold front was actually a very weak feature, which cleared the area early in the afternoon (well after the thunderstorms), with sunny conditions being soon established.”

Linda Smith-Wilson, spokeswoman for Belco, said people living in Paget may have suffered some affects from the storm after a transformer at the substation near to ‘S' Hill was struck. However, residents were very quickly connected to the substation near to the Belmont golf course in Warwick, causing little impact on supply.

She said: “Belco workers have been working through the day to get everybody back on as normal.

“In total, about 300 customers were affected purely by the storm. The last ones were back on by about 4.45 p.m. (yesterday). It took some time because they had to replace the transformers.”

Businesses and residents hit by the Washington Street blackout were in the dark for a while longer than others after an accident during restoration work caused power failure to even more customers.

Ms Smith-Wilson said workmen were expecting the power to be up and running by early evening there last night.

A Belco spokeswoman said power should, hopefully, also have been restored to Hinson's Island by about 11 p.m. last night following repairs to an underwater cable.

She said technicians, who were working on the power outage throughout yesterday, believed the cable had been damaged by a mooring.

She said: “It was a matter of finding the damaged part of the cable and then working on it.”