Chicago Weather: Storms Knock Down Trees, Cut Power In Parts Of Chicago Area

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Strong storms pushed through parts of the Chicago area Thursday night, leaving trees on the ground in some places.

In Elgin, a branch landed right on a power line, causing it to catch fire. Also in Elgin, strong winds uprooted a tree and ripped up the pavement in Pioneer Park.

ComEd said as of the 9 p.m. hour, they had about 31,000 total customers without power in their coverage area.

Their outage map showed that in the Elgin area, there were approximately 60 outages affecting about 16,100 customers.

Those storms developed early Thursday evening and produced some gusty winds in the northwest suburbs and Lake County north of Chicago.

Late Thursday, there were still concerns about a line of storms moving in from the west, though it had weakened slightly. There may still be some stronger storms within the line.

The strongest storms are still expected until 1 a.m. across the area, and they could produce heavy rain, lighting strikes, and wind gusts of 40 to 50 mph.

Storms will be tapering off Thursday night after the line rolls through.

There was also an earlier concern that hail may be possible, along with a very isolated tornado threat.

No severe thunderstorm watches or warnings were in place Thursday night.

The weekend brings a slight cooldown through early next week, but temperatures soar again by the middle of next week.