THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 9, 1995 TAG: 9506090521
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
Thermometers lied Thursday. Or so it seemed.
While the raw temperature was in the low- to mid-90s - nowhere near a record - humidity, hovering around 50 percent, pushed the heat index as much as 15 degrees higher Thursday afternoon.
At 3 p.m., it was 94 at the Naval Eastern Oceanography Center at Norfolk Naval Air Station. But with a relative humidity of 44 percent, the heat index - how it feels when heat and humidity are combined - was 109.
The official high of 92 at the National Weather Service office at Norfolk International Airport was 7 degrees shy of the record of 99 set in 1899, but well above the normal high for the date: 81.
For those whose business is in the great outdoors, it was not always a great day.
``You just want to sit in the shade and vegetate,'' said Kirk Johnson, 22, of Chesapeake, who spent the day walking door to door, dropping off promotional fliers. ``The worst is when you go by a house with a pool. You just want to dump work and take a dip.''
Others said the heat is just part of their jobs.
``It's hot out there? I didn't notice,'' joked Capt. R.L. Kent Hinnant of the Virginia Beach Life Saving Service, who has been patrolling the Oceanfront for the past 35 summers.
``You kind of get used to it,'' Hinnant said of working in the heat. ``We're just getting ready for the Fourth of July at this point, so this is good training for us.''
In that sense, it was combat training.
``We've had a couple people who've had too much (alcohol) to drink and got too much sun and passed out,'' Hinnant said. ``We woke them up and got them off the beach before they became a cinder.'' Otherwise, ``it's been a pretty orderly crowd. There's been a few faintings.''
Hinnant said his crew of lifeguards weather heat fairly well.
``It's not a hardship because we've got umbrellas at all the lifeguard stands . . . and the guards can jump off the stand and take a quick dip every so often to cool off,'' he said.
The heat was doing a good job of bringing the resort strip back to life after this week's cloudy, rainy start, Hinnant said.
``Once that hurricane got out of here, people started to think about summer again,'' he said. ``And once the kids get out of school, then the real serious summer will begin.''
As for serious summer temperatures, meteorologists are predicting a break today. While skies should be partly sunny, a weak cool front should have pushed through by early today before stalling across North Carolina. With that, the high temperature is expected to be in the upper 70s at the shore and in the lower 80s inland.
The weekend also is expected to be partly sunny with scattered afternoon showers and thunderstorms. Lows should be in the upper 60s to lower 70s and highs in the upper 80s. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
BILL TIERNAN/Staff
Ghent Elementary fourth-grader Tiffany Bennett blows bubbles on the
playground during the school's carnival Thursday. Students endured
temperatures in the 90s, but it felt more like 109 degrees because
of the humidity.
by CNB