THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 9, 1994 TAG: 9407090179
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
LENGTH: Short : 36 lines
The 48 continental states were roasted by near-record temperatures in June, the National Weather Service says, with the desert Southwest and the Northeast getting the worst of it.
Coast-to-coast temperatures averaged 71.7 degrees, the second hottest nationwide June reading in 100 years. The all-time June temperature record, 72, occurred in 1933 during the height of the Midwest's infamous Dust Bowl.
``Last month was hot just about everywhere,'' said climatologist William Brown of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. ``Temperatures were warm or hot in 45 states and cool in only three - Oregon and Washington and Georgia.''
Colorado had its hottest June since climatologists began keeping nationwide weather records in 1895 and Arizona and New Mexico their second hottest.
Easterners had an uncomfortably warm month with New Hampshire recording its secondnd hottest June in 100 years; Maine and Vermont their fourth hottest, Virginia and West Virginia their fifth hottest and Pennsylvania its sixth hottest.
The month was the driest June ever in Nevada and Utah and very dry in nearby western states. As a result, much of the West is a forest fire-prone tinder box.
Rainfall was sparse in the central and southern plains, the Mid-Atlantic states and New England. by CNB