The National Weather Service has extended its extreme heat advisory until 8 p.m. Friday, June 27, because of forecasted high daytime heat indexes for the next two days.
Pop-up storms that moved through central Ohio the afternoon and evening of June 25 knocked out power to more than 1,225 AEP Ohio customers in Upper Arlington and Columbus’ Northwest Side, as well as more than 350 in Reynoldsburg and another 225 in Columbus’ German Village area, according to the utility’s outage map.
The outages appear to have been mostly resolved, with only 14 people without power in the Columbus area as of 8:25 a.m. June 26, according to AEP’s outage map.
Heat advisory extended to June 27
The weather service extended the extreme heat advisory until 8 p.m. June 27, as heat index values are expected to be in the upper 90s to the lower 100s the next two days, the weather service said.
The heat advisory began Sunday, June 22, and was originally supposed to end at 8 p.m. Wednesday, June 25, but was extended that afternoon until Friday, June 27.
COTA extending free rides through Friday
The Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) announced on June 25 that it will continue to suspend fares system-wide through Friday, June 27, as a result of the weather service extending the heat advisory in Franklin County. Fares have been suspended since Sunday, June 22 when the heat advisory first began.
COTA suspends fares on all transit vehicles on all routes when the weather service issues either a heat or cold advisory or warning due to extreme temperatures.
The extension of the heat advisory comes as more than 100 people in Columbus have become sick from heat-related illnesses, The Dispatch previously reported.
Reporter Shahid Meighan can be reached at smeighan@dispatch.com, at ShahidMeighan on X, and at shahidthereporter.dispatch.com on Bluesky.
Public Safety and Breaking News Reporter Bailey Gallion can be reached at bagallion@dispatch.com.
(This story was updated to add a photo gallery.)
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Extreme heat advisory extended by NWS to June 27, so are free rides on COTA system
Reporting by Shahid Meighan and Bailey Gallion, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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