Relief from heat in sight; temperatures to dip soon.(Local) - The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA)

Byline: STEVE STONE

BY STEVE STONE

THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

The mercury is bubbling, air conditioners are humming, roads are buckling and the mosquitoes are biting.

Officially, the curtain won't rise on summer until Tuesday at 2:46 a.m., but the show is well under way. An intermission would be nice.

That should begin today.

'The worst of the heat/humidity is over,' Patrick Maloit, a forecaster at the National Weather Service in Wakefield said Wednesday.

Keep the iced lemonade handy, however.

While today's temperatures should be cooler than Wednesday's, Maloit said, the high is still expected to top out around 90 . The plus side is that the humidity should be lower.

Temperatures should gradually moderate, said Neil Stuart, another Weather Service meteorologist, with highs in the upper 70s to near 80 by Sunday. After that, things will start climbing again, back toward 90 by midweek.

Wednesday's high at the Weather Service data station at Norfolk International Airport matched Tuesday's, hitting 93 at 3:49 p.m. That fell four degrees shy of the record of 97 , set in 1885, and was 10 degrees above normal for this time of year.

Folks who look to the nighttime hours for heat relief have been disappointed. The overnight low of 76 was also 10 degrees above normal.

For today, the normal high is 83 and the record for the date is 96, set in 1991.

A dip in temperatures and humidity could take pressure off the electrical grid.

Dominion Virginia Power posted record demand Tuesday evening, delivering 17,291 megawatts between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. That topped its last peak of 17,084 in July 2002.

Dominion didn't expect to break its record again Wednesday.

The surge in demand, combined with the excessive heat, damaged some equipment along Dominion's distribution system and caused power outages for about 17,000 customers throughout the region, said Chuck Penn, a Dominion spokesman in Norfolk.

About 8,900 customers in the utility's Chuckatuck service area lost power because of a problem outside a substation in Churchland.

A couple of underground cables faulted in downtown Norfolk. Initially, a wide area was affected, but much of the service was restored Tuesday evening by switching customers to other circuits.

About 169 customers around Duke Street could not be switched and went without lights and air conditioners into Wednesday evening while crews worked on about 200 feet of cable. Such underground equipment tends to break less often, but takes longer to repair.

While utility crews worked to get the power flowing, highway crews were busy trying to keep traffic moving despite heat-induced road problems.

Pavement and concrete roasting in the hot sun expanded and, in some places, buckled. There were problems on interstates as well as busy city routes.

State and city highway crews had to clean out the broken road surfaces and lay new material.

Folks who stuck out the hot day at home without air conditioning and tried sitting on their stoops to get some relief found a different summer problem: pesky mosquitoes.

The Norfolk Health Department is expanding mosquito control operations by fogging in several neighborhoods.

Among them are: Norview Heights, Greenwood, Sherwood Forest Gardens, Brandon Place, Elmhurst, Estabrook, Pennystown, Overbrook, East Coleman Place, Coleman Place, Sherwood Heights and East Fairmount Park.

Residents are urged to stay indoors when their areas are being fogged.

A mosquito hot line will be updated daily after 3 p.m. with information on impending spraying operations. The phone number is 683-2914.

If this heat wave is too much for you, consider this: It could be worse.

The highest temperature in the Lower 48 states on Tuesday, when it was 93 in Norfolk, was 110 in Needles, Calif.

If you want to escape to cool weather, head to Leadville, Colo., or Yellowstone National Park, Wyo., where the mercury dipped to 28 Tuesday.

And our heat is nothing compared to the all-time records.

The hottest temperature ever measured - 136 - was recorded in El Azizia, Libya, on Sept. 13, 1922.

Staff writer Carolyn Shapiro contributed to this report .

* Reach Steve Stone at (757) 446-2309 or steve.stone@pilotonline.com.