ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 17, 1994                   TAG: 9407130050
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short


HAZY HEAT WILL LIKELY STICK AROUND

Virginia residents, dizzied by the summer's first heat wave, are trying to adjust to oppressive haze that just won't go away.

Harry McIntosh, chief of the National Weather Service Roanoke office, said the area is experiencing the first wave of a Bermuda High- an unusually strong high-pressure system that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi Valley.

And according to McIntosh, this tropical insanity could stick around for the next few months. "This is one of the controlling features of the summer," he said.

While Thursday's high of 95 degrees did not set a record in the Roanoke Valley, McIntosh expects today's heat to beat 1973's record of 93 degrees.

Besides the heat, a lack of moisture is causing many Virginia farms to suffer in the crop-withering summer heat.

``It's a record drought for us here,'' said Dave Starner, superintendent of Virginia Tech's Northern Piedmont Agricultural Research and Extension Center near Orange.

McIntosh's long-range forecast shows no relief in sight, with temperatures above normal and low levels of rainfall.



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