Power being restored in suburbs hit by gusty winds
Strong winds overnight caused scattered power outages in the suburbs, but the weather outlook for the rest of today and Christmas Day is good.
ComEd crews are working on downed lines in the Crystal Lake and Lake Forest areas, spokesman Alejandro Bodipo-Memba said Thursday morning.
"Overnight we had some scattered outages throughout the northern part of our territory," he said. "Crew are out working now to make sure that any reported downed power lines are being repaired."
Peak wind gusts in the suburbs were 54 mph in Sycamore and Mount Prospect, according to the National Weather Service.
Today we can expect a high near 44 degrees in the Chicago area with wind gusts up to 20 mph. There's a slight chance of rain and snow before 8 p.m., and the low tonight will be around 36 degrees.
Christmas Day is expected to post mild temperatures for this time of the year, with a high near 46 degrees and partly sunny skies.
The normal high for Christmas at Chicago is 32 degrees. The highest temperature recorded on Christmas is 64 degrees in 1982 - the coldest was -5 degrees in 1983.
A storm system moving north from the Gulf Coast might bring snow and affect travel late Monday into Monday night, said meteorologist Ricky Castro of the National Weather Service's Chicago office. But there's also a chance we'll just get mixed precipitation during the day changing into rain in the evening, Castro said.
"There is still a lot of uncertainty with what's going to happen with that next system coming in," he said. "The models we look at, there is still a lot of variance to where it's taking it, which ultimately will affect who gets what."
Chicago's last measurable snowfall was 0.2 inches on Dec. 18, although some places in the Northern suburbs recorded close to 1 inch.