What Happened to Spring in the East?
In late April, summer got an early preview as locations from coast to coast climbed to record levels. High pressure brought sunshine and temperatures responded by climbing as high as 104 degrees in southern California. The heat reached the East Coast later that week, and Washington`s Dulles airport climbed to 92 degrees for three straight days, while New York`s Central Park hit 91 degrees twice in a four-day period. But while residents of the East thought that summer was here to stay, it was not to be. A stubborn area of low pressure formed across southern Canada after the heat wave. Thanks to this low pressure system, seemingly constant waves of storms moved through the Ohio Valley into the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. As a result, May and June were unseasonably soggy and chilly, with temperatures 5 to 7 degrees below average. Rainfall was more than twice normal during the two-month period in Washington, D.C. (14 inches), and a similar story played out across the Northeast. The chill l
