The National Weather Service has extended its extreme heat advisory until 8 p.m. Friday, June 27, because of forecasted high daytime heat indexes the next two days.

Pop-up storms that moved through central Ohio the afternoon and evening of June 25 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. Power was restored to all but a few customers in Upper Arlington and Columbus' Northwest Side as of 5:20 p.m., and to less than a handful in German Village, the outage map reported at 7 p.m.

A COTA bus moves through downtown Columbus on Friday, December 20, 2024.

However, some 217 customers in the Reynoldsburg area remained without power as of 8:45 p.m. as AEP was still assessing the situation, the map showed.

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.

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: Extreme heat advisory extended by NWS to June 27, so are free rides on COTA system