As a series of pop-up storms move through central Ohio this afternoon and evening, the National Weather Service has extended a heat advisory until 8 p.m. Friday, June 27, because of forecasted high daytime heat indexes and overnight lows.

The storms had 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 as of 4:45 p.m., according to the utility's outage map. While power was restored to all but a few customers in Upper Arlington and Columbus' Northwest Side as of 5:20 p.m., the outage map indicated the outages in German Village and Reynoldsburg continued.

Pop-up storms move through Columbus and central Ohio in this still image of an AccuWeather radar loop taken at 430 p.m. June 25.

Meanwhile, the weather service has also issued a flood advisory for Delaware and Franklin counties as the passing storms are expected to dump heavy rain, potentially causing minor flooding. The advisory is scheduled to expire at 6:30 p.m.

Some areas that may experience minor flooding include Columbus, Dublin, Westerville, Upper Arlington, Hilliard, Worthington, Polaris, and Clintonville. The storms have already dumped between 1½ and 3 inches of rain, the weather service said. Additional rainfall amounts of up to an inch are also possible.

Heat advisory extended to June 27

The weather service also extended the 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. In addition, central Ohioans can expect no relief after the sun goes down as nighttime air temperatures ar not expected to drop below 75 degrees.

The heat advisory began Sunday, June 22, and was originally supposed to end at 8 p.m. Wednesday, June 25 until it was extended to Friday.

COTA now to extend free rides through Friday

The Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) announced late afternoon 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. On June 24, more than 2,100 residents living on parts of the city's Northeast and North Central sides were affected by power outages. Power was eventually restored around 11 a.m. on June 25 to a majority of customers, though over 200 remained without power at that time. That figure was down to 14 customers as of 4:45 p.m., according to AEP Ohio's online outage map.

Reporter Shahid Meighan can be reached at [email protected], at ShahidMeighan on X, and at shahidthereporter.dispatch.com on Bluesky.

(This story was updated to add a photo gallery.)

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Heat advisory extended to June 27 as series of pop-up storms move through central Ohio