Record heat, severe thunderstorms impact Chicago area on Tuesday

going to get for Labor Day weekend. Coming up Stefan some welcome relief, Kevin. Thank you very much. We'll see you soon. So those downpours tonight, coming after four sweaty and sticky days of extreme heat in Chicago, even breaking records today. NBC 5's Natalie Martinez is live tonight with how people are coping with this steamy. And now stormy weather. Natalie it sure was Stefan. You know, trains were affected, planes were affected. We heard about a ground stop at O'Hare from the city to the suburbs. It seems like no one was spared. And this is a really good time to talk about our pets. Marist High School boys varsity soccer players are working up a sweat at practice tonight, knowing it could have been much worse. Dangerously worse, if they were outside. I thought either it was going to get canceled or we were going to have to go outside, which would have been pretty brutal. Marist has this Palos Heights Sportsplex for weather events, just like the one we're seeing today. We're just very fortunate to have this, you know, just keep the rhythm up. The Illinois High School Association does not allow outdoor sports in dangerously hot weather. If it's above 90, you can't do anythinoutside. And then there's restrictions. Even in the 80s and so forth, it might be easy to forget that our pets suffer just like us during a heat wave. According to the head of Schaumburg based American Veterinary Medical Association. Well, our pets that have extremely short noses are extremely susceptible to heat stroke because the fact they are not able to exchange cool air with the warm air as easily, and they might lie on their backs so that their belly gets warm. And if you have a very light skinned dog, that excessive exposure to the sun can lead to sunburn and once again, even potentially cancer. Then this evening it went from scorching temperatures to summer storms. Here on route 60. In Wakanda, winds whipped through, causing damage on North Old Rand Road. Power was out near Bonner and Route 13. Metra delays could be felt from the city to Arlington Heights. Riders reported a 58 minute delay between Irving and Jefferson Park due to high winds. In Lincolnshire. Residents showed us downed trees and power lines. Rain came in lowered temperatures a bit, but for shoppers at a Chicago grocery store, it was better to just wait inside for storms to pass. We talked about those downed power lines, so we checked in with ComEd, who told us that more than 44,000 of its customers were affected, with hundreds of outages. For now, we're live in the Fulton River district. I beg your pardon? For Fulton River district. Natalie Martinez, NBC 5 news. All right