Extremely windy weather persists in the Chicago area, with gusts nearing 60 mph, strong enough to knock down tree limbs, make driving very difficult and lead to some power outages, according to the National Weather Service.
A high wind warning was in effect for the Chicago area until 4 p.m. as forecasters anticipate gusts will continue surpassing 60 mph.
ComEd is reporting nearly 20,000 outages, largely centered on the North Side and in the northwest suburbs as of about 8:08 a.m., according to their outage map.
A spokesperson for ComEd told the Sun-Times that emergency crews who helped restore power to customers during severe storms earlier this week were already in the area and providing assistance. So far, power has been restored to 47,000 customers Friday, according to ComEd.
“We’re going to be out in full force getting people restored,” the spokesperson said.
ComEd noted customers are being impacted “for a number of reasons” related to the wind, from electrical poles being knocked down to tree branches blowing into power lines.
There’s no immediate timeline for when all customers will have their power restored.
“It’s not like a thunderstorm where it passes by, these are ongoing winds through the day,” the spokesperson said. “We’re just going to keep banging away and getting people restored as quickly as we can.”
The wind caused a brief ground stop at O’Hare International Airport, which expired about 7:15 a.m., according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Train service was also impacted by the wind. Metra Union Pacific train #312 scheduled to depart from Highland Park was running 20 minutes behind schedule due to an obstruction on the tracks. On the CTA Yellow Line, service was temporarily suspended for the same reason.
Wind gusts at O’Hare and Midway Airports peaked at 53 and 56 mph respectively as of about 5 a.m., the National Weather Service said. Valparaiso Airport in Indiana reported gusts at 63 mph and DuPage Airport reached 62 mph.
“It’s sort of the same as a severe thunderstorm,” said Brett Borchardt, a meteorologist with the weather service. “It’s a wind strong enough to knock down tree limbs, make driving very difficult and even lead to some power outages.”
The strong winds originated from a low pressure system moving toward Lake Michigan from Madison, Wisconsin, where northern Illinois and northwest Indiana are on the southern end of the system.
“It’s just the strength of this low pressure system that is driving these winds to be so strong,” Borchardt said.
Borchardt notes that Saturday looks to be a “break in the action” before another storm system approaches Sunday night.
The system could potentially bring severe thunderstorms and snowfall and temperatures are expected to plummet from the 40s to the 20s Monday and Tuesday, according to the weather service. The wind chill could struggle to get above minus five degrees by early next week.
“That’s gonna be a storm system that could give us a little bit of everything,” Borchardt said.
