The National Weather Service issued a special weather statement Friday afternoon calling for a line of strong showers and thunderstorms moving from west to east in southeastern Pennsylvania. The alert includes Berks, Carbon, Lehigh, Monroe and Northampton counties.

“Some of the heavier shower or thunderstorms will be capable of producing locally gusty winds to around 40 mph and small hail,” the NWS statement said. “Local downpours can also occur resulting in some brief minor flooding.”

As of 6:15 p.m. Friday, here are the outages reported by area electric companies.

FirstEnergy showed 4,010 customers out of power in Berks County, with the largest numbers in Cumru, Exeter, Kenhorst, Robeson and Reading. No outages were shown in Lehigh County, but Northampton had 1,422 customers out.

PECO was showing the following number of customers affected by outages: Montgomery County, 8,293; Bucks County 6,525; Chester County, 3,109; Delaware County, 42; and Philadelphia, 4,043.

Saturday and Sunday are forecast to have highs in the low 80s with a high in the low 90s Monday and mid 90s Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

.The National Weather Service is forecasting higher than normal temperatures in the Northeast next week, which could lead to a heat wave in southeastern Pennsylvania as the mercury climbs into the 90s. (Courtesy of the National Weather Service)AccuWeather did not have a meteorologist available Friday night to be interviewed about the possible heat wave in southeastern Pennsylvania, but did provide a link to a broader article titled “Dangerous heat wave looms for over 135 million next week from Chicago to Philadelphia.”