Even the Adams County Civil Defense Office lost power in a sudden thunderstorm that dropped rain and hail across the area Monday.

The storm, which knocked down power lines and trees, originated in Hattiesburg and moved west toward Adams County and Concordia Parish. About 500 Entergy customers were without power in downtown Natchez and near the Isle of Capri casino, said Entergy Network Manager Bobby Duncan. Entergy crews were able to restore power to those customers after a short time and were working Monday evening to fix scattered outages around the county.

Around 5:20 p.m., the cell of the storm centered over downtown Natchez with reports of dime-sized hail falling over the area, said Adams County Civil Defense Director George Souderes.

Because of downtown power outages, the civil defense office on South Wall Street operated for at least 35 minutes on backup power, Souderes said.

Natchez Fire Department officials responded to six reports of downed power lines throughout Natchez.

Damage around the county was minimal with two reports of fallen trees on Liberty Road.

The Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Department received no reports of damage.

The westward movement of the storm is not unusual, one forecaster said.

&uot;In the summer it is fairly common for storms to move from east to west,&uot;&160;said Eric Carpenter of the National Weather Service in Jackson. &uot;Storms generally move to the east in the winter, but in the summer, storm movements are predicated by individual storm complexes.&uot;

But even Monday’s rain may not help the heat wave across the area.

&uot;The storm won’t help the heat much,&uot; Carpenter said. &uot;It will take a major pattern change to help the heat.&uot;

In fact, he said, the hot temperatures help spark the storms. &uot;Hot weather fuels these storms and creates an environment condicive to damaging winds,&uot; Carptenter said. &uot;The storm is caused by a warm, moist, unstable air mass.&uot;