THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 11, 1994 TAG: 9407110034
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 46 lines
Pleasant.
It's a word that's been long absent from Hampton Roads' weather forecasts, but it's there today, and that's a welcome change for heat-weary residents of Southeast Virginia.
After a week of daily highs that topped off just short of the century mark - made all the worse by oppressive humidity that made it feel like it was 110 to 115 degrees - a cold front moved through Sunday afternoon.
Within hours, temperatures at the National Weather Service office at Norfolk International Airport plunged 23 degrees, from a high of 98 to 75 by 7 p.m.
Today should be sunny and pleasant with a high in the middle to upper 80s and northerly winds at 10 mph. Tonight should be clear with the low in the more sleepable range of the upper 60s.
Tuesday is expected to be mostly sunny and pleasant with a high in the middle to upper 80s.
By midweek, the mercury and the humidity are expected to begin climbing again.
The end of the heat wave did not come quietly.
Severe thunderstorms - some with very heavy rainfall and lightning - rocked portions of Hampton Roads on Sunday afternoon, bringing localized street flooding and scattered power outages.
Police reported scattered traffic accidents during the storms, but no serious injuries.
Rainfall amounts ranged from just more than a half-inch at the National Weather Service office at the airport to 1.41 inches at the Naval Eastern Oceanography Center at Norfolk Naval Air Station. And some sections received little or no rain.
But there was one treat for everyone who ventured outside and looked skyward just before dusk: a huge rainbow that appeared in the eastern sky just as the storm clouds began to break.
KEYWORDS: WEATHER
by CNB