Despite reports of a tornado in Harford County Monday night, meteorologists were not able to confirm a twister ever touched down.

The tornado reports came amid severe thunderstorms, with bright and intense lightning that rolled through Harford County.

What happened Monday, Carrie Suffern, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said was a combination of daytime heating, moisture in the air and an "upper-level disturbance," which created a lift and resulted in the thunderstorm.

A high pressure system building from the north that will lessen the possibility of thunderstorms in the next few days, and temperatures may be lower than previously predicted.

Suffern said Tuesday morning, the dew points were not as high as they expected and with drier air coming in from the Northwest, temperatures wouldn't be nearly as hot.

For Tuesday, she said, the highs would be in the low 90s and a cool front coming in would make for a "pretty pleasant end of the work week."

Those high predictions, of temperatures possibly reaching 100 degrees, prompted the Harford County government to open several cooling centers throughout the area Tuesday. Six senior centers were open from noon until 8 p.m.

Along with the hot weather have come several severe thunderstorms like the one that rocked the county Monday night.

Storms like the one Monday evening aren't as likely either.

On Monday, the National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warnings for the area, including Harford County.

Accompanying the storm were reports of a possible tornado on the ground in the area of Route 543 and I-95 and continuing to Route 22 and I-95.

"There were three different callers in Harford County who reported seeing a tornado," Rick Ayers, emergency manager for Harford County, said Tuesday.

Ayers said one caller contacted the Emergency Operations Center and two contacted the National Weather Service directly. Ayers said the county followed standard tornado warning procedures and activated warning sirens.

"They did issue a tornado warning, but it was after we had already received those three calls," Ayers said.

Suffern said Tuesday the reports were most likely incorrect.

She said after checking radar maps from Monday night and talking with locals in Harford County, the meteorologists were unable to confirm a tornado touched down. Instead, Suffern said, what Harford experienced was likely "strong winds."

"Today we haven't been able to confirm that there were tornados," Ayers said, "the weather service actually thinks it was shelf clouds that actually look like tornados."

While Suffern said it's unlikely the storm produced tornados, she did say the weather service had two reports of downed trees in Perryman and Darlington from the storm Monday night, both around 9 p.m.

"There was no report of significant damages in the area," Ayers said of the area near I-95 where tornados were reported.

Fire personnel also responded Monday to a home in the Overview Manor community in Abingdon in response to a possible lightning strike at a home in the neighborhood.

"We had a dwelling fire down in the Abingdon fire district, but I don't know that we have any confirmation that it was storm-related," Ayers said late Tuesday afternoon.

Most of the storm-related calls were for automatic alarms triggered and wires knocked down by the storm, he added.

Matt Lapinsky, director of public works for the city of Aberdeen, said the storm did not cause any problems in Aberdeen.

"It was just basically, it went through real quickly, it didn't affect water or sewer, and we've had no reports of other damage," Lapinsky said Tuesday afternoon.

He said he was driving through the Bel Air area when the rain began and was concerned about consequences of the storm.

"It was picking up last night and, like I said, we came through it unscathed so I'm pretty happy about that," Lapinsky said.