Powerful overnight thunderstorms quelled a brutal heat wave, but also brought high winds, thousands of new power outages and heavy lightning believed responsible for at least two suburban house fires.
All area thunderstorm watches and warnings expired by 1 a.m., but before they did a humid air mass that moved through northern Illinois brought storms that dumped more than an inch of rain and wind gusts as strong as 70 mph that snapped tree limbs.
And "there certainly was a lot of lightning, no doubt about that," said meteorologist Mike Barbou of the National Weather Service.
During one hour, a company that monitors lightning strikes recorded about 13,000 strikes from central Lake Michigan to north central Illinois, Barbou said.
Lightning strikes are believed to be the cause of house fires inNaperville and southwest suburbanFrankfort, fire officials in both towns said.
At about 10:10 p.m., lightning struck a roof at 1106 Augustana Drive, according to the Naperville Fire Department, causing an estimated $150,000 in damage.
The residents of the home had gotten out by the time fire crews arrived. It took about 15 minutes for firefighters to extinguish the roof blaze, though they stayed on the scene for another 90 minutes, cutting open ceilings and walls to look for hidden fires, officials said. Afterwards, a building inspector said the home was uninhabitable.
In Frankfort at about 11:43 p.m., lightning destroyed the roof and chimney at a two-story home in the 22500 block of Home Court.
The homeowners were out of town and no injuries were reported, said Frankfort Fire Battalion Chief Todd Hamm. It took about an hour for firefighters to extinguish the fire that is believed to have caused at least $200,000 in damage.
In Streamwood, a plumbing company's roof was damaged by high winds, causing a major gas leak and strewing roofing material and bricks around the area, according to the Streamwood Fire Department. Damage was estimated at $50,000.
Commonwealth Edison Co. reported that it has restored power to 121,000 customers who lost power during the storms. By 8 a.m. only 23,800 customers remained without power.
The northern suburbs were hardest hit, with 11,400 outages. The southern suburbs had 7,000; Chicago and its immediate western region had about 3,400, and the utility’s western region had only 2,000, according to the utility.
Traffic light outages were causing problems for morning commuters in Oak Brook, Oak Brook Terrace, Naperville, Cicero, Waukegan, Barrington and Chicago.
Temperatures in the low 80s, or even 70s near the lake, are expected for today, according to forecasters.
For updates on the weather, check the Chicago Weather Center.
In the last month, Chicago and suburban residents have seen an almost constant cycle of either sweltering heat or violent thunderstorms. At least 15 deaths in Cook County have been attributed to heat and storms have left hundreds of thousands without power.