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When it's really hot, home in the AC is not the only place to cool off Date published: 8/11/2009
By RUSTY DENNEN As the temperature outside climbed close to 100 degrees, the climate in Spotsylvania Towne Centre was Alaska-like in comparison--in the cool 70s. And that's where friends Ashley Slemp and Lee Heather Hodge brought their kids to cool off and have lunch yesterday afternoon. "It's just too hot outside" Hodge, who lives in King George County, said. "And there's too much TV at home," Slemp, of Spotsylvania, chimed in. Under their watchful gaze, in blissful cool amid the stores and shoppers, Austin and Alex Hodge and Adriana and Katherine Slemp scurried on and off toy rides in the concourse. No sun beating down. No humidity. No sweat. The mall wasn't the only draw for cool-seeking denizens. Julie Lambert of Bealeton in Fauquier County made a beeline to AMF Fredericksburg Lanes with son Hunter and kids from the neighborhood. "We were debating between swimming and bowling, but we haven't been bowling all summer," Lambert said as the group sipped Pepsis between games. "I'm glad we came, except that I'm losing," she said with a laugh. Christina Rodriguez, who was manning the counter at the bowling alley, said the crowd was larger than usual for a Monday afternoon. "When it's hot outside, more people come in," she said. The flip side is during the winter, when the bowlers come in for warm ambience. Christian Masters, 13, chose to be outside with his buddies at a skateboard park in Culpeper County. T-shirt dark with sweat, he was busy running the ramps. "I've been out here awhile," he said. Others, like Henry Jenkins, had work outside that couldn't wait. Jenkins was baling hay on Croftburn Farm off State Route 3 in Culpeper. He wasn't fazed by the heat. "It's what you get used to," he said. Turns out, it was the hottest day so far this year--97 degrees. The forecast called for a high of 99. While the last couple of days have been stifling, with one more day of mid-90s today, followed by a gradual cool down, it hasn't been all that hot this summer, according to the National Weather Service. "Though temperatures [this week] are above normal, for the summer as a whole, it's been cooler than average," said Howard Silverman, a meteorologist in the weather service's Sterling office in Northern Virginia. The heat wave, he said, comes courtesy of a ridge of high pressure that arrived over the weekend from the South. "For much of the summer [that area] has been baking in temperatures around 100 degrees," Silverman said. The last time it was 99 degrees here was July 21, 2008. Three other days last summer also reached 99 degrees--June 10, July 18 and July 20, according to Ac cuWeather.com. The last 100-degree day in Fredericksburg was Aug 9, 2007. But the day before that, Aug. 8, was a memorably hot 104 degrees. Rusty Dennen: 540/374-5431
Date published: 8/11/2009
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