South Still Suffers in Record Heat as Storms Cool East
Scorching temperatures gripped the South for a fourth straight day Wednesday, but violent thunderstorms snapped the heat wave in the East, where lightning killed a golfer.
Lightning was blamed also for serious injuries to two hikers in Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park.
The mercury rose to a record 103 degrees in both Macon and Savannah, Ga., and Augusta had a high of 104. High temperature records were set in six cities in Georgia, Virginia and South Carolina.
Agriculture officials warned that the severe heat, combined with high humidity, was endangering livestock and crops.
In the Washington, D.C., area, a line of violent thunderstorms unleashed lightning that killed one man and injured four others on a Virginia golf course. The storm pushed the mercury from 86 degrees to 75 degrees in one hour in the nation’s capital.
Stuart Hunt, 23, of Annandale, Va., was pronounced dead at the Greendale Golf Course.
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