A Nation Divided by its Weather Woes

N E W  Y O R K, Aug. 17 -- Forget revenue sharing. What America needs thissummer is weather sharing.

While fires devour Western forests at a record pace, and theSouth endures devastating drought and deadly heat waves, theNortheast muddles through one of the coolest, soggiest summers inmemory.

Fourteen inches of rain fell on a New Jersey township in ahalf-day last weekend. In the parched West, more than 80 majorwildfires rage across 13 states; the summer-long inferno has killedeight firefighters and burned more than 4.5 million acres of forestand rangeland.

A Country of Extremes

New York City had its coolest July since 1914, whiletriple-digit heat has killed scores of people in Texas and the DeepSouth. Large sections of the Southeast are beset by a prolongeddrought, projected to be the costliest ever for Georgia farmers.

“We do live in an interesting place,” said Jim Laver, deputydirector of the National Weather Service’s Climate PredictionCenter. “The U.S. covers enough longitude, enough time zones, ithas some of the most unusual and severe weather types of anywherein the world.”

Some of the extremes were anticipated, to a degree.Meteorologists had predicted another in a series of dry summers inthe South as a spinoff from La Nina, the pool of unusually coolwater that has dominated the Pacific Ocean for more than two years.

But Laver said the Northeast’s sustained, cool dreariness — oneyear after severe drought afflicted the region — is more puzzling.

“We talk about it every day, asking why this is happening,” hesaid. “We’ll figure it out eventually.”

Tourism in Northeast Suffering

Some Northeasterners don’t mind. Big-city commuters can jostletheir way through August rush hours without breaking a sweat.Tanning-salon owners have savored the cloud cover.

“Eight straight days with no sun will do it,” said JamesYoung, general manager of Sun Capsule salon in South Windsor, Conn.“People need their sun.”