The lights went out again for some in the Washington area as rain and high winds swept across the region Sunday evening.

News reports suggested that Northern Virginia was hit the hardest by storms that arrived in the area in the early evening -- and indeed tens of thousands found themselves without electricty or air conditioning.

"We had about 37,000 without power because of the storms that came though," said Karl Neddenien, a spokesman for Dominion Virginia Power. He said that they expected that power would be fully restored overnight.

High winds also raked other parts of the commonwealth and were blamed for damaging buildings in Spotsylvania County.

Across the state, more than 50,000 people lost power, according to Gov. Bob McDonnell's office. That number at 8 p.m. Sunday included 30,389 Dominion customers, including 18,648 in Northern Virginia.

Another band of thunderstorms swept the D.C. region at about midnight, bringing brief downpours. 

By about 12:30 a.m., Dominion was reporting 15,211 people without power system wide and 4,643 in Northern Virginia. Pepco said 1,456 customers lacked power in the District, 132 were without power in Montgomery County and 24 lacked power in Prince George's County. Baltimore Gas and Electric reported 835 outages, mostly in Baltimore city and Anne Arundel County.