Temperature Soars As Thousands Still Lack Power From Storm

About 325,000 DTE Energy customers lost power in storms that ripped through metro Detroit Wednesday and Thursday.

As of Thursday night, 110,000 customers were still without electricity. The worst, an early-morning storm Thursday, carried wind gusts of up to 70 m.p.h., causing more than 1,000 power lines to come down, DTE said.

And there's more bad news: Today's expected high for metro Detroit is 101 degrees, according to a late forecast from the National Weather Service. That would break the record of 100 for the date, set in 1977 and matched in '88. More thunderstorms are possible today and tonight.

On Saturday, a weak cold front is expected to drop the 90- to 100-degree temperatures of the past few days to more normal highs of 80-85 degrees from Sunday through the middle of next week, said Joe Clark, a meteorologist for the Weather Service in White Lake Township. The average high for metro Detroit is 83 degrees for this time of year.

And some people may be without power until Saturday night -- when DTE hopes to have the vast majority of customers restored, spokeswoman Eileen Dixon told the Free Press.