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Could Coming Heat Wave Mean More Outages?

UPDATED 07/15/11 10:37 a.m.

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The power crisis from the storms on Monday have caused immense frustration for hundreds of thousands of people in the Chicago area, but could a heat wave coming this weekend mean a whole new round of outages?

ComEd officials are planning to discuss that possibility Friday with representatives of the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications.

As of 10 a.m. Friday, a total of 31,000 ComEd customers remained without power, the vast majority of whom were in the northern suburbs. Many have been without power since Monday, and in some cases have had to shack up in hotels because the lack of electric power to pump water from wells to their homes has left them high and dry.

ComEd says it plans to get power restored to all customers by the end of the day Friday, after earlier estimates that some might be in the dark until Saturday.

But while the storms are well behind us now, the other shoe will soon drop in the weather picture. The high on Friday is only 84, but temperatures will climb into the 90s by Sunday with conditions that CBS 2 Meteorologist Mary Kay Kleist calls "super-hot and humid."

In the far northern suburbs another thunderstorm may precede the heat wave, on Saturday. Then starting Sunday, temperatures will top out in the 90s every day for the foreseeable part of the week.

The high for Monday is 91, Tuesday 90, Wednesday 93 and Thursday 94. Heat indices will make it feel as hot as 110.

Overnight lows will hold in the 80s, creating a difficult situation for those without air conditioning.

ComEd officials will address the possibility of an outage caused by the heat at 1 p.m. Friday.

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