Midwest Enjoys Cooler Weather; East Gets Rain

Residents of the nation’s midsection enjoyed cool temperatures Saturday, while rain interrupted a persistent heat wave in the East.

Cooler temperatures lingered over the Great Plains, Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes states, with record morning lows in the 60s reported for the date in Paducah, Ky., and San Antonio. Calico Rock, Ark., tied a 1915 record low of 55.

Showers and thunderstorms covered many Eastern cities from New England to the Gulf Coast. Wilmington, N.C., received more than 2 inches of rain, flooding streets and low-lying areas already saturated from rainfall Friday of almost 7 inches.

More than an inch of rain fell at Salisbury, Del., on Saturday with more than three-quarters of an inch at Valdosta, Ga., and Chatham, Mass., and two-thirds of an inch at Beckley, W. Va.

Farm Belt Aided

National Weather Service forecaster Brian Smith said rainstorms developed Saturday over the drought-stricken Farm Belt, particularly in Oklahoma, western Kansas, western Nebraska and South Dakota.

In Bluefield, W. Va., officials said the city may not go bankrupt from the heat wave that has been scorching the East this summer, but hot temperatures are drying up the city’s lemonade account.

The Bluefield Chamber of Commerce, which touts the city as “nature’s air-conditioned city” because of surrounding mountains, each year budgets about $180 to pay for free lemonade the city offers on days when the mercury hits 90 degrees. So far this summer, the city has shelled out $810.

“We’ve served lemonade nine times this summer,” Chamber President Frazier Miller said. “That is an all-time record. Once in the early ‘60s, we served it six times, but most years we go without serving it at all.”

Bluefield recorded a comfortable 78 degrees Saturday afternoon.

Barge Traffic Clears

The Coast Guard reported that recent rain over the nation’s midsection has raised the level of the Ohio River enough to clear a weeks-long logjam of barge traffic.

The Ohio, like the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, had shrunk to all-time lows, and at one point 84 barge tows were backed up on the Ohio a few miles north of where it meets the Mississippi. But all had cleared the area by Friday evening.