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Politics : Rat's Nest - Chronicles of Collapse -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Crocodile who wrote (1394)	8/3/2005 12:03:46 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 24211

Hot enough for you? June-July top the all-time charts July 29, 2005, 1:35 PM EDT ITHACA, N.Y. (AP) _ This will come as little consolation for anybody who has steadfastly sworn that the sticky summer of 2005 has been the hottest ever: You're right. With two days left in this month, it's shaping up as the hottest June-July recorded in several eastern cities, according to data compiled by the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University. The statewide average in June was 69.5 degrees, a whopping 5.5 degrees warmer than normal. "That's a very significant departure," said Keith Eggleston, regional climatologist with the climate center. The summer heat wave that has cloaked much of the country has been blamed for at least 40 deaths, most in the Phoenix area. Syracuse (73.8), Buffalo (73.6), Albany (73.5), Utica (71.7), Ithaca (71.4) and Binghamton (70.6) all set two-month records, as did Scranton (74.1) and Erie (73.4) in Pennsylvania. Other cities from Burlington, Vt., to Hartford, Conn., to Pittsburgh will remember this as one of the hottest summers ever. Even with two days left, Eggleston said: "It'd be pretty difficult for most of those places to drop out of first place." Stephon Nesbitt of Schenectady has beat the heat by sitting around the house, "sucking up the A.C. "I'm drinking a lot more water," he said Friday while shopping at an air conditioned mall. "I don't like it at all. I like cold weather." Blame a persistent Bermuda high for the heat. The weather system named for the island it parks over creates a clockwise flow of air, sucking up the Southeast's heat and moisture and dumping it on the Northeast. "It's not an unusual phenomenon," Eggleston said. "It sets up every summer and could give you a shorter heat wave, a few days, maybe a week. What's been unusual this year is that that weather pattern has been the dominant weather pattern for most of the past two months." In New York, it has hurt some farmers, helped others and sent people to state parks by the busload. It has also pushed power usage to new records as people have turned up the air conditioning. For dairy farmers, who account for nearly half of the $3 billion agriculture contributes to New York's economy, the oppressive weather means uncomfortable cows who produce less milk. "Cows don't like it when it's this hot," said Peter Gregg, spokesman for the New York Farm Bureau. On the plus side, the growth of corn in the state is "almost freakish," Gregg said. "Farmers will tell you it's the highest they've seen." Apple growers are feeling pretty chipper, too, as the hot weather cranks up the sugar content in the fruit, meaning sweeter apples come fall, Gregg said. And the heat has dried out hay fields, making it easier to cut. The state park system has seen 1.4 million more visitors at its 171 sites this summer compared to normal _ a 6 to 7 percent increase, said parks spokeswoman Wendy Gibson. The increase is most keenly felt in places like Long Island where the state parks include an ocean beach. Anywhere from 55 million to 60 million people visit a state park each year. Power usage records in the state and in the New York City area fell twice in a week. On Tuesday, customers across the state used 32,075 megawatts _ enough to power 32 million homes _ between from 4 to 5 p.m., breaking the mark of 31,841 megawatts used on July 19, according to the New York Independent System Operator, which manages the electricity grid in the state. The National Weather Service said there is some chance for higher than normal temperatures over the next two weeks but there's no clear signal about what the rest of August will feel like. nynewsday.com