Updated: Severe Thunderstorm Watch Lifted for Area

After rain (and even some hail) swept through the Cranberry area earlier Monday, The National Weather Service has lifted a severe thunderstorm watch for Western Pennsylvania, including Butler and Allegheny counties.

As of 5 p.m., PennPower reports there are a few homes in Cranberry without electricity. Crews are working to restore power to those areas as quickly as possible, according to the PennPower website.

South of Cranberry, about 12,000 Duquesne Light customers are without power as of 4 p.m. Tuesday after thunderstorms caused damage throughout the area.

"Duquesne Light crews are in the process of restoring power by removing trees and repairing downed wires," said Joey Vallarian, manager of media and community relations for Duquesne Light Co.

"System restoration time is undetermined at this time, as the damage to the electrical system is still being assessed," he said.

First Energy reports 739 customers in Allegheny County are without power as of 5 p.m.

Flooded roads, downed wires and trees were reported throughout the North Hills in the aftermath of a severe thunderstorm Tuesday afternoon.

Thunder crashed and rain poured down in the Pine-Richland area as the National Weather Service upgraded its severe thunderstorm watch to a warning at 1:27 p.m. Tuesday. The warning expired at 2 p.m.

At the height of the storm, reports of downed power lines and trees were heard on the scanner, along with possible lightning strikes in areas around Allegheny County.

Route 910 and North Chapel Road reportedly had flooding problems, according to scanner reports.

In addition, parts of Route 19/Perry Highway, Babcock Boulevard and McKnight Road also were experiencing flooding.

North Hills Patch, through its Twitter updates, reported power outages that included traffic signals on McKnight, Babcock and Siebert.

The National Weather Service reminds motorists not to drive into areas where water covers the road.

"The water depth may be too great to allow safe passage. Move to higher ground," the weather service website states.

Duquesne Light warned that downed wires are a safety hazard and should be avoided because they pose the danger of electrical shock and injury.

Outages in the North Hills

The thunderstorms also caused widespread, mostly minor damage in parts of Ross and West View Tuesday afternoon.

Trees brought down power lines, in some cases sparking small fires, and forced the closure of several intersections.

Generators were powering traffic signals on McKnight Road, Babcock Boulevard, Thompson Run Road, and Cemetery Lane, just to name a few.

Basements in at least two homes in the 100 block of Rochester Road were flooded. 

Fire crews were also called to the Home Depot on Ross Park Mall Drive where a back-up generator was smoking after a tree near the rear of the building took out a power line.

Duquesne Light officials say they are working to restore power for 12,000 customers in their coverage area.

Penn Power said it had fewer than 500 customers without power in the Ross/West View area.

Earlier today, reader Joe Minkel sent us these photos of the hail that fell in Cranberry at about 11:15 a.m. To share you severe weather photos, click the "Upload Videos and Photos" button on this article.