Temperatures and heat index values are continuing to climb as an excessive heat warning for the entire Chicago area continues. NBC 5 Meteorologist Pete Sack has the latest forecast.
Editors' Note: Many of Wednesday's power outages from ComEd and WE Energy have been resolved. You can find out latest heat wave updates here. Our original story continues below.
Thousands of customers were left without power in Wisconsin and Illinois amid a heat wave that has driven heat indices north of 115 degrees on Wednesday.
According to ComEd, approximately 2,927 customers in Illinois were without power as of 7:30 p.m.
Of those, 2,294 were in Cook County, while 342 customers were without power in LaSalle County, according to the utility company.
WE Energy in Wisconsin had nearly 4,000 customers without power at one point in Kenosha County, but those outages have largely been addressed, according to officials.
There are still outages just to the north of Milwaukee, and the utility is currently reporting 1,249 customers without service as of 7:50 p.m.
Parts of Wisconsin, like most of Illinois, are under an excessive heat warning until Thursday evening, with high temperatures in the upper-90s and heat indices climbing above 110 degrees on Wednesday and Thursday.
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Both utilities have said that they are activating additional crews to address any issues with the power grid, which is under stress because of prolonged use of air conditioning for heat relief purposes.
The latest updates can be viewed on both companies’ websites.
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