THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 16, 1994 TAG: 9406160488
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE AND SARAH HUNTLEY, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: 940616 LENGTH: Medium
And there's a chance that high-temperature records could be set over the next few days.
{REST} The mercury spiked two degrees shy of a record, hitting 95 at midday at the National Weather Service office at Norfolk International Airport. That, combined with a humidity of 44 percent at the time, created a heat index of 111 - in other words, it felt that hot.
The highest local heat index reading - 113 - came from Norfolk Naval Air Station.
``This isn't fun,'' sheet metal mechanic Richard Fenstermaker said as he sweated away the afternoon, wiping his sunburned forehead with the bottom of his tank top. ``It's starting into summertime now.''
At least Fenstermaker was wearing shorts. Others working around him at a soon-to-be HQ Home Quarters Warehouse on Virginia Beach Boulevard in Virginia Beach endured the heat in long pants.
``We were told we have to keep our shirts on,'' Fenstermaker said. ``We just found out today that we could wear shorts. I had a pair in my car, but the others didn't.''
Dave McCoy, a 23-year-old roofer working in the 7700 block of Leafwood Drive in Virginia Beach, had the unfortunate task of operating a tar kettle, a large black vat that heats tar to 500 degrees before it is spread.
``The smell. The smoke. It's hotter on the roof by about 10 or 15 degrees, plus the heat that comes from the tar itself,'' he said. ``Your feet start burning.''
Folks elsewhere in the mid-Atlantic region had an even more unpleasant time of it. In Baltimore, the temperature hit a high of 101 at 2 p.m. Wednesday, combining with a humidity of 47 percent for a heat index of 124.
The Southeast's heat comes courtesy of a high-pressure system anchored over the Atlantic. It will control the region's weather through the end of the work week.
``A cool front approaching on Sunday could bring some relief for a while,'' said David Tolleris, a meteorologist at the Norfolk Weather Service office.
The heat wave's impact has seemed greater in part because the past two months were hotter and then cooler than normal - differences that resulted in relatively pleasant conditions with little variation in temperatures.
April was very warm, with an average high of 64.7, which was 7.7 degrees above normal. That made the month the warmest April ever in Norfolk since continual record-keeping began in 1871.
In May, the average temperature was 64.9, which was 1.2 degrees below normal.
Some of Norfolk's records could fall during the next few days if forecasts live up to their billing. Today's record high temperature is 96, set in 1981. Friday's is 97, set in 1945; Saturday's is 96, set in 1944; and Sunday's is 101, also set in 1944.
{KEYWORDS} WEATHER
by CNB