PHILADELPHIA — Highways buckled across the U.S., the waters of Lake Michigan were unusually warm for this time of year and even a minor train derailment outside Washington was blamed on heat, but the hot weather gripping much of the country only worsened Saturday. The heat was blamed for at least 24 deaths.

Temperatures of more than 38 C were forecast in Philadelphia and excessive heat warnings were issued for several states in the Midwest as the days of smothering heat piled on, accompanied by severe storms that have knocked out power in spots from Michigan to the East Coast. Most notable was last weekend’s sudden and severe storm that drenched the mid-Atlantic region, where thousands remained without electricity a week later.

Hundreds of thousands remained without power Saturday, mostly in West Virginia, Ohio and Michigan.

At New York City’s Penn Station, the air conditioning was falling short of full capacity. The doors were left wide open at a half-dozen locations around the two-block-wide underground station.

“It’s so hot I feel like I want to faint,” said Betty De la Rosa, 19, of the Bronx, who was working at a station doughnut shop.

Record temperatures were set Friday in several places, including the Indiana cities of Indianapolis, South Bend and Fort Wayne. In central Arkansas, Russellville reached 41 C, breaking a record set in 1964.

Nine people in Maryland have died of heat-related causes in recent days, the state said.

Authorities in Chicago said heat was a factor in six deaths there, mostly among older people.

Three deaths in Wisconsin, two in Tennessee and one in Pennsylvania were also reported to be heat-related.

In Ohio, a man in his 70s and two women — one in her late 60s, the other in her 80s — were found dead this week, said Dr. Jeff Lee, a deputy county coroner in the central part of the state. He said all three were suffering from heart disease but died from stress caused by high temperatures in their houses.

Temperatures inside were stifling, recorded in the low- to mid-30s in two cases, with windows shut and no ventilation. The houses lacked electricity because of recent power outages.

“If they had gotten cooling, we would have expected them to survive,” Lee said.

Relief was on the way in the form of a cold front as the weekend ends, but forecasters expected it to bring more severe weather, too.

The rain should help dry spells in many places.

Much of Arkansas is enduring brown grass and seeing trees lose their green, and farmers in Ohio are growing concerned about the dry conditions, considered among the worst of the past decade.

In Chicago, perspiration beaded on the face of street magician Jeremy Pitt-Payne, whose black top hat and Union Jack leather vest weighed heavily as he waited to board a Chicago River water taxi that would take him to his sidewalk stage downtown.

“This is part of the character. I’m a magician from Britain,” Pitt-Payne said in a British accent.

“I may lose the vest by the end of the day.”

Pitt-Payne has worked throughout Chicago’s three-day stretch of triple-digit temperatures.

His shows have been shorter and crowds have dwindled from his usual of 50 to about 20 people.

His trick for beating the heat? He starts his shows at about 2 p.m. “when the Trump Tower is gracious enough to block out the sun” along his stretch of sidewalk.

“That’s when I start.”