The Nation's Weather

NATIONAL WEATHER SUMMARY:

In the East, low pressure off the Northeast coast brought more gloomy conditions to Massachusetts and northern New England with clouds and rain showers. A cold front brought showers and a few isolated thunderstorms across New York and Pennsylvania but rain dissipated before getting into the NYC area. Clusters of thunderstorms formed during the midday hours over eastern Kentucky and eastern Tennessee and southward across the Gulf states through the afternoon hours. Several of these storms became severe with numerous felled trees and power line damage from strong wind gusts across eastern Tennessee, northern Alabama and southern Georgia. Scattered thunderstorms were also frequent through much of Florida during the daytime hours. Rain was most persistent over southeast Florida where the Miami area picked up nearly 2 inches of rain.

Across the Central states, a cold front trailed from the Northeast into the Central Mississippi Valley during the day. Relief from the heat was felt behind the front with lower temperatures and humidity on Sunday across this region. Very hot and humid conditions remained south of front however with highs exceeding 100 once again over much of eastern Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Several record highs were broken over this area, a few of which include: Houston Intercontinental, Texas (102); Meridian, Miss. (102); Shreveport, La. (102); College Station, Texas (102); and Alexandria, La. (104). Isolated storms over portions of southern Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi provided some relief from the heat but most of the shower and thunderstorm activity was confined to western Texas through the day.

In the West, showers and scattered thunderstorms were common once again across New Mexico, southern Colorado and eastern Arizona with monsoonal moisture in place. Dry conditions were felt elsewhere as a high pressure ridge covered much of the region. It was very hot across much of the California desert and valley regions with record highs in several locations. A few record highs for the day include: Merced (106); Sacramento (108); Stockton (110), and Modesto (111).

WEATHER EXTREMES FOR YESTERDAY:

HIGHEST TEMPERATURE (DEGREES F)............121 Death Valley, Calif.

HIGHEST HEAT INDEX (DEGREES F).............121 Death Valley, Calif.

LOWEST TEMPERATURE (DEGREES F)..............31 Stanley, Idaho

LOWEST WIND CHILL (DEGREES F)...............31 Stanley, Mont.

HIGHEST WIND GUST (MPH).....................49 El Paso, Texas

HIGHEST PRECIPITATION (INCHES)............1.93 Miami, Fla.

ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY:

In 1931, Monticello, Fla. soared to a high of 109 which would become Florida's highest recorded temperature of all time.

In 1954, tremendous rain of up to 27 inches from Hurricane Alice on the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas resulted in record flooding. The river was 12.6 feet above its previous high mark in Laredo, Texas and parts of the U.S. 90 bridge were 30 feet below the high water.

In 1998, it's unknown if it was a tornado but high winds toppled 22 cars of a 101-car freight train en route from Chicago to Centralia, Ill., just south of Champaign. The toppled cars were filled with mixed freight estimated to weigh about 260,000 pounds.

Filed by: DTN/Meteorlogix

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.