Wind gusts down trees across Chicago area; 4,000 ComEd customers remain without power

National Weather Service

Fierce winds across the Chicago area knocked down trees and power lines Wednesday, leaving thousands without electricity.

Wind gusts topped 60 mph Tuesday evening and into Wednesday morning in the far western and southern suburbs, with the Aurora Airport recording the highest gusts at 62 mph. Winds at O’Hare International Airport reached 58 mph, and a weather instrument about three miles offshore from the Loop registered a 66 mph gust, according to the National Weather Service.

The powerful winds caused a tree to fall on two people in St. Charles Township, where the South Elgin Fire Department responded about 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, officials said. The two people were taken to a hospital with injuries not considered to be life threatening.

“There were a lot of variables that came together to produce prevailing strong winds across the entire area last night,” Casey Sullivan, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said Wednesday.

“Very rare” warm temperatures overnight caused winds at greater heights to mix down toward the surface, producing the strong winds, Sullivan said.

Power lines were reported down in areas of suburban Cook County, as well as in DuPage, Lake, Ogle and Winnebago counties, according to the weather service.

Nearly 4,000 people were still without electricity as of 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, as 189 active outages were reported by ComEd. More than 12,700 customers were without power Tuesday night.

The winds had diminished to around 30 to 35 mph gusts by Wednesday evening and were expected to dwindle to less than 10 mph overnight into Thursday, Sullivan said.

Thursday's forecast calls for sunny skies with a high of 79 degrees and winds of up to 10 mph.