It’s been estimated that over 90% of the country was under the strain of severe heat.  Average temps were in the mid-90s and sometimes triple-digits…and the heat index has been making it feel as hot as 100- to 115-degrees.

This weekend’s heat wave is being blamed for at least six deaths and scattered power outages leaving hundreds of thousands of customers in the dark.

It’s estimated that more than 800,000 Michigan homes and businesses were affected after storms ravaged the area. In New York, Con Ed reported roughly 12,000 scattered outages early Sunday evening, mostly in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens.

On the lighter side, wasn’t it fun to see the NYPD issue a tweet to city residents proclaiming that Sunday had been cancelled?  The fun tweet, clearly directed towards people with nefarious intentions to stay indoors. “nothing to see here. Really, we got this”, it said. A police department in Massachusetts asked criminals to hold off on committing crimes until it cools down, as well.

Our favorite two stories were from the National Weather Service, which actually cooked biscuits by putting them in a hot car in Nebraska . . . and Chicago, where Cubs fans  gave a standing ovation to the wind.  It took until the 7th inning for the sweltering heat to die down just a bit — enough for a breeze to blow through the stadium, resulting in the standing ovation.

(Check out a video.)