LaGuardia 12:00 AM 8/3/06 - 92F - 17 Cities Set New High Low Temp Records

NEW YORK — A massive heat wave seared the eastern USA for the fourth consecutive day Wednesday, putting a record strain on power systems across the Northeast. Not even nightfall brought much relief.
Cities along the East Coast and in the Midwest coped with temperatures at or near 100 degrees. Add in the smothering humidity and the weather felt as if it were closer to 110.

The roasting continued after dark, as temperatures in some cities held above 80 degrees. New York's LaGuardia Airport tied a record for the highest low temperature there ever: 86 degrees. At midnight Wednesday, the temperature there was 92. During the past two weeks, at least 17 cities in the western USA also set all-time records for the warmest daily low temperature, according to the National Climatic Data Center. The record-high lows reflect a trend that government researchers have been tracking. Data center records show that, over the past five years, summer nights have grown warmer than at any time since the government started keeping track in 1895. In New York and Boston, for instance, the low temperatures Wednesday morning were above the normal daily highs, according to the National Weather Service.


"That's a dangerous kind of heat, when you can't cool off," said Jim Wilson, a Weather Channel meteorologist.

The National Weather Service issued heat warnings and advisories Wednesday from Georgia to Maine, and as far west as Oklahoma. Weather Service meteorologist Dennis Feltgen said the heat will begin to subside today in the Midwest; most of the East Coast could see relief by Friday. The heat wave is blamed for more than 136 deaths in California alone. Fifteen deaths in Missouri since July 12 have been attributed to the heat, a spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services said. In Kentucky, an 18-month-old boy was found dead inside locked a van Wednesday.

EDIT

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/news/2006-08-02-heat-wave_x.htm

for a change. A local charismatic Catholic congregation has been doing a novena for rain. It's been so bad all the other believers are trying to get them to STOP. They won't, of course.

There has been a huge amount of flooding. New arroyos have been cut and diversion channels have overflowed. Lots of folks here have lost just about everything.

We desperately needed rain, but this is ridiculous.

Las Cruces, soggy, with only very brief "sunny" intervals over the last couple of days. Today, humid and wet as usual.

Further south, the flooding in Sunland Park, NM and El Paso has been ugly.

Yesterday, I accompanied a friend up to Ruidoso. Made it through the day, but as we left, the big clouds and rains were starting. As we went down 70 past White Sands, you could see the whole system behind us, sitting on the mountains. Ahead of us, you could see one huge, stacked cloud dumping rain with a parade of smaller clouds lined up over the mountains to the north. We got home ahead of the system, which dumped rain overnight here.

Spectacular to watch these systems coming in here, though. Having lived in NJ all my life prior to coming to NM, all you saw there was gray skies...Never got to see how the rain actually comes down from the clouds...awesome!

more problems.

Greater extremes of weather.

So, whatever you get, you'll get more than you want.

Whatever you don't get, you'll really really want.