TURNER – Tarnya Constantino figured it was time to break out the barbecue. Winter was over. The afternoon was sunny and warm. Conditions were perfect. What could possibly go wrong?

“It rained for a while and then it stopped. There was a rainbow and everything. It was kind of pretty,” the 29-year-old Turner woman said. “Then the sky got very dark and it started hailing. I had to run inside.”

A series of fast moving thunderstorms passing over the state early Tuesday night dumped pea-sized hail stones in parts of western Maine. There were no reports of injuries or major damages, but backyard barbecues were interrupted and traffic slowed to a crawl in places.

Weather officials said Turner and Farmington were pelted with hail as storms moved through at about 6 p.m. Other areas saw driving rain that lasted only minutes.

“They were scattered storms, but the ones that did come through were pretty feisty,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Tom Hawley.

Some streets became slick as ice accumulated on roadways, forcing drivers to slow down and wait out the storm. Then it was over as swiftly as it began.

“It all happened pretty quick,” Constantino said.

According to Hawley, hail in April is not unusual.

“It happens from time to time,” he said. “We’re between the cold season and the warm season. It doesn’t take a lot for a storm system to produce hail.”

The good news is that any ice that falls on the state is not apt to last long. The forecast calls for temperatures to soar into the 70s on Thursday and possibly into the 80s on Friday.

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