Temperatures today reached the mid-90s, challenging the hundreds of thousands of area residents still without power.
The chances of severe weather, however, decreased, which was good news for an area still dealing with Friday's deadly derecho. Meteorologists kept an eye on the possibility of storms Monday, but the clouds stayed clear as they are likely to do Tuesday.
However, Mother Nature could provide some fireworks on the Fourth of July. Much of the area could remain dry, but some areas could see thunderstorms.
Luckily the humidity hovered at about 30 percent today, which was much less than the 50 percent we saw last week before the storms.
High temperatures will still be the big story the next couple of days. They will remain in the low to mid-90s the rest of the week.
Pepco has announced expects to restore power to 90 percent of customers affected by 11 p.m. Friday, though CEO Jim Rigby said the utility is intent on beating that estimate and has 1.700 workers in the field.
Virginia's Dominion Power hopes to hit that mark by Thursday. BGE predicts having restoration completed by the weekend.
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Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell said Monday that about 1.2 million lost power in the commonwealth. Dominion said power has been restored to 760,000 of them by Monday evening. McDonnell said it will take the rest of this week to fully restore power, especially in hard-hit southwestern and northern Virginia. McDonnell also confirmed that 10 people have died in Virginia as a result of the storms. Also, since June 20, another six heat-related deaths have occurred.
In Maryland, Gov. Martin O'Malley said Monday afternoon that there have been six storm-related deaths in the state. Three of those -- two seniors and one adult -- were related to heat. One of those heat-related deaths happened in Montgomery County.
Regional cooling centers are open, and residents are encouraged to hydrate and stay in air conditioned locations when possible.
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