Power was restored to about 1,500 North Side ComEd customers who were left in the dark by outages as a deep freeze continues its grasp across the area Friday.
Over a third of the outages were reported in West Ridge as of about 8 a.m., but power to the area has since been restored, according to ComEd’s official website. A spokesperson with ComEd said most of the outages weren’t related to the cold weather, but that crews were on standby “around the clock” in case of any major outages.
Wind chills dropped to as low as minus-36 degrees at O’Hare International Airport and minus-34 degrees at Midway Airport as if 6 a.m., according to the National Weather Service. O’Hare recorded an official low of eight degrees below zero as of the same time.
An extreme cold warning was expected to expire at noon when a cold weather advisory takes over, and remains in effect through Saturday. Temperatures are expected to remain below zero and wind chills are expected to climb to roughly minus-20 degrees, according to the weather service.
“It’s another cold night expected,” said David King, meteorologist with the weather service. “Unfortunately any kind of warmth is relative.”
In addition to the bitter cold, one to three inches of snow from a major winter storm passing through a large section of the United States is expected to fall between Saturday and Sunday, according to King.
“It’s going to take a while [for the snow] to accumulate,” King said. “Hopefully that kind of mitigates some of the impacts.”
King recommended staying inside or bundling up and limiting time outdoors as the cold stretch continues.
“Consider what you’re doing and how long you have to be out,” King said.