Clouds Bring Brief Respite to Sweltering Southeast

Clouds brought slightly cooler weather today to the Southeast, where a record string of eight days of 100-degree heat has caused 10 deaths. But forecasters warned that the relief was temporary, and scattered rain did little to ease the region’s drought.

The high temperatures and the months-long drought have killed thousands of chickens, withered crops and forced water-use restrictions in some communities.

Temperatures at 1 p.m. today were mostly in the 90s and high 80s in Georgia, southeastern Tennessee and the Carolinas, where Monday’s high of 101 at Columbia, S.C., marked a record eighth consecutive day of triple-digit temperatures. The humidity in Columbia today made it feel like 111.

“There are some clouds to block out a little bit of the sunshine,” National Weather Service meteorologist Tim Hawks said.

However, he warned that temperatures should climb back to above 100 degrees in parts of the state by Thursday and continue through the weekend.

“It looks like it’s going to stay hot,” Hawks said.

Officials in De Kalb County near Atlanta planned to open a shelter for senior citizens to cool off. Augusta, Ga., hit 104 degrees Monday, tying a 98-year-old record.

The weekend heat-stroke deaths of three elderly people raised the number of heat-related fatalities in Georgia to five. Two heat-related deaths have been reported in North Carolina and one each in South Carolina, Virginia and Louisiana.