The outlook could mean additional pressure on the U.S. electrical grid, which held up to bouts of record demand for air conditioning during a heat wave this month.

The Northeast and the eastern Midwest, big population centers, will have equal chances of getting hotter or cooler temperatures during the month, the NWS said.

Much of the Texas cotton-growing region and the U.S. Northwest will also see below-normal precipitation in August, the NWS said in its 30-day forecast.

"The existing drought in Texas will likely continue or deepen," said O'Lenic.

The dry outlook could have implications for the Texas cotton industry, already facing problems from thin rainfall in July.

"This is outrageous," City Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr. said Thursday. "When is this going to be fixed? If it's going to be days, they should tell people it is going to be days."

The blackouts were at their worst on Wednesday, when 10 of the 22 feeder cables that supply the area with power were down simultaneously, delaying subways. The temperature had hit 100 degrees in the neighborhood the day before.

Spokesman Chris Olert said the power company was making every effort to get the situation fixed but couldn't estimate when that might happen. He said the company didn't know why things went wrong.

"Chances are fair, but not firm, that it was heat related, but right now that is just a hypothesis," he said.

That was little consolation for Gianni DellaPolla, 26, a baker at Gian & Piero Bakery.

"We probably lost $25,000 in business in three days," DellaPolla told the Daily News. "Everything like wedding cakes, eggs, creams, we had to throw all that out."

The company has more than 500 splicers, troubleshooters, mechanics and support personnel working around the clock to restore power. In an effort to locate damaged equipment, crews are inspecting thousands of manholes and service boxes, as well as transformers and miles of cable.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has demanded that the utility investigate and deliver a report on the cause within two weeks.

"We can't overemphasize the danger of this heat," Mayor Francis Slay said. "The longer the heat goes on and the power is out, the riskier it is."

Police used public-address speakers from their squad cars to announce locations of the community centers and other places designated as cooling centers. Volunteers went door to door, checking on people with no power to run fans or air conditioners.

Utility workers urged customers to find a cool place to stay. They warned that power could be out in some areas for three to five days.

By midmorning, the temperature was 90, with a predicted high of 103. The region could get some relief on Friday, when the high was expected to drop to 88.

The storms tore through the city a day earlier, ripping off a section of airport roof and dumping it on a highway. Windows were blown out of a hotel restaurant and a press box at baseball's Busch Stadium. At least three buildings collapsed, and more than 30 people were injured.

"I've never seen this many people without power, this much debris, buildings collapsed, lines down," the mayor said.

By midday, power had been restored to just over 100,000 customers, but new reports of outages kept coming in.

St. Louis-based AmerenUE, the utility serving Missouri and Illinois, said it would restore power to hospitals, nursing homes, water- treatment plants and other "critical facilities" first.

"If you're out of power, go to family, a friend or a cooling shelter," Vice President Richard Mark said. "Take whatever means necessary, but stay out of your home."

City Health Director William Kincaid cautioned that the city's older housing, much of it made of red brick, can heat up like furnaces in the summer heat.

John Swapshire, 39, grabbed the next-to-last window fan at a hardware store for $14.99. The electricity at his home was out, but he had a gas-powered generator.

"I had to go to six stores to get this. They were either closed because of the electricity or sold out," Swapshire said. "I don't think you can buy a cube of ice in all of St. Louis, either."

Stanley Shelton, 53, found a cool spot under a tree in a downtown park where piles of broken limbs and branches covered the grass.

"I've never experienced anything like this. I don't know anyone with power," Shelton said. "I'll just sit in my yard with a big jug of water and wait for it to pass. Maybe I'll take a couple cold showers. That works too."

The death toll from the heat wave that has gripped much of the country for the past week rose to at least 17 people in seven states. Four more people died in the Chicago area, bringing the total number there to seven, officials said. Two have died in the Philadelphia area, two in Oklahoma City, two in Arkansas, two in Indiana and one each in South Dakota and Tennessee.

In Indiana, a 25-year-old woman taking medications that might have affected her body's ability to stay cool died from heat exposure when temperatures inside her apartment reached 100 degrees, officials said Thursday. In Wisconsin, a 6-year-old girl was killed Thursday when storms knocked part of a tree onto a tent at a park.

The storms also brought heavy rain, hail and 80 mph winds to Illinois on Wednesday night, and roughly 120,000 homes and businesses were without power Thursday.

Three people were injured in St. Louis when a residential building collapsed in a neighborhood south of downtown, police said. The historic Switzer building near the Mississippi River, once home to the famous licorice maker, also partially collapsed.

Many of the injuries were to baseball fans waiting for a St. Louis Cardinals-Atlanta Braves game. Winds blowing at nearly 80 mph blew out press box windows and ripped the tarp, injuring at least 30 people, five of whom were taken to hospitals, said Norm Corley, a supervisor with Accu-Care, which handles medical problems at the stadium.

Forecasters extended a tropical storm warning extended from Plymouth south and west to Woods Hole, including Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Forecasters said the storm may bring in tides of 1 to 3 feet above normal.

"You don't go outside and watch the winds. You don't go and watch the waves," said Eric Blake, a hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center.

At 2 a.m. EDT, the storm had maximum sustained winds of about 50 mph. The storm was expected to weaken over the next 24 hours and lose tropical characteristics by Saturday morning.

The Coast Guard was monitoring about 50 commercial fishing vessels still on the New England waters near the storm's path late Thursday night, but had no reports of vessels in trouble, said Chief Petty Officer Scott Carr.

Seas were expected to build to 15 feet southeast of Cape Cod and Nantucket overnight.

Blake said forecasters expect heavy rainfall of about 2 inches on the southeast Massachusetts coast and islands through midday Friday, with tropical storm force winds over 40 mph.

A tropical storm watch was issued for eastern Long Island and parts of Connecticut, but was discontinued early Friday as the storm moved northeast.

Workers at Nantucket Moorings on Thursday were making sure their customers' boats were tied down securely, but they weren't panicking.

"That's all we can do for now - make sure lines are secure and people know that the storm is approaching," said Leigh Van Hoven, office manager of the company, which rents and sells moorings.

A record 28 named storms and 15 hurricanes, including destructive Katrina, occurred during last year's June-November Atlantic hurricane season.

The first named storm of the 2006 season, Tropical Storm Alberto, swept over Florida in mid-June, then plowed northward along the coast past the Outer Banks. It was blamed for one drowning.

When the rains came

Some 12,000 years ago, the only place to live along the eastern Sahara Desert was the Nile Valley. Being so crowded, prime real estate in the Nile Valley was difficult to come by. Disputes over land were often settled with the fist, as evidenced by the cemetery of Jebel Sahaba where many of the buried individuals had died a violent death.

But around 10,500 years ago, a sudden burst of monsoon rains over the vast desert transformed the region into habitable land.

This opened the door for humans to move into the area, as evidenced by the researcher's 500 new radiocarbon dates of human and animal remains from more than 150 excavation sites.

"The climate change at [10,500 years ago] which turned most of the [3.8 million square mile] large Sahara into a savannah-type environment happened within a few hundred years only, certainly within less than 500 years," said study team member Stefan Kroepelin of the University of Cologne in Germany.

Frolicking in pools

In the Egyptian Sahara, semi-arid conditions allowed for grasses and shrubs to grow, with some trees sprouting in valleys and near groundwater sources. The vegetation and small, episodic rain pools enticed animals well adapted to dry conditions, such as giraffes, to enter the area as well.

Humans also frolicked in the rain pools, as depicted in rock art from Southwest Egypt.

In the more southern Sudanese Sahara, lush vegetation, hearty trees, and permanent freshwater lakes persisted over millennia. There were even large rivers, such as the Wadi Howar, once the largest tributary to the Nile from the Sahara.

"Wildlife included very demanding species such as elephants, rhinos, hippos, crocodiles, and more than 30 species of fish up to 2 meters (6 feet) big," Kroepelin told LiveScience.

A timeline of Sahara occupation:

* 22,000 to 10,500 years ago: The Sahara was devoid of any human occupation outside the Nile Valley and extended 250 miles further south than it does today.

* 10,500 to 9,000 years ago: Monsoon rains begin sweeping into the Sahara, transforming the region into a habitable area swiftly settled by Nile Valley dwellers.

* 9,000 to 7,300 years ago: Continued rains, vegetation growth, and animal migrations lead to well established human settlements, including the introduction of domesticated livestock such as sheep and goats.

* 7,300 to 5,500 years ago: Retreating monsoonal rains initiate desiccation in the Egyptian Sahara, prompting humans to move to remaining habitable niches in Sudanese Sahara. The end of the rains and return of desert conditions throughout the Sahara after 5,500 coincides with population return to the Nile Valley and the beginning of pharaonic society.