M. Spencer Green / AP

Chicago Housing Authority Asset Manager Sondrae Lewis, takes part in a well-being check on Bessie Rogers, 83, at her home in Apartamentos Las Americas on Friday.

By Miguel Llanos, msnbc.com

Chicago on Friday suffered through a third straight day above 100 degreesthe first such string since 1947but that didn't stop seniors from their regular aerobics class at the city's Levy Senior Center. If anything, the heat was an incentive given the air-conditioned refuge.

"They're very happy to get inside," said Joyce Gallagher, executive director for the city agency that oversees 21 senior centers.

But she was also clear that the centers aren't shelters to come in for a nap."It isn't a place where you come and sit to get some cool air," Gallagher emphasized. "It's a place where you come to participate and socialize and coincidentally it's air-conditioned."

It's normally in the mid-80s this time of year in Chicago, but this week has been special: 103 degrees on Friday, and the humidity made it feel like 108. Thursday also saw 103, which is just 2 degrees shy of Chicago's all-time record, set in 1934. Wednesday topped out at 102.

The 95-year-old woman's death on Tuesday might have been heat related, officials said, but an autopsy was inconclusive, NBCChicago.com reported. Heat stress was determined to be a contributing factor in the deaths this week of two men, one 53 and the other 48, both of whom were obese and died of heart disease.

Related:Tips for seniors to avoid heat stress

Tens of thousands of Chicagoans also lost power during the weekend storms that impacted millions across the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic.

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Triple-digit temperatures don't keep Chicago senior citizens from aerobics