The outage that darkened the homes and businesses of 1,950 Duke Energy customers from Nashville to Gnaw Bone today was caused by a fallen tree.

Duke Government and Community Relations Manager Bruce Calloway said a tree landed on a transmission line in the Needmore area.

Power went out at around 10:30 a.m. and stayed off until about 2:30 p.m. on one of the hottest days of the year.

Calloway said demand on the power grid was not a factor in this outage.

“It’s certainly warm out there, but we have the capacity to meet those needs,” he said.

“We always recommend people conserve energy as best they can, especially on a hot day like this, as it can put more load on the system.”