Temperature

The Carroll County commissioners agreed yesterday to pay $10,000 in state fines for exceeding water-temperature limits at the county's wastewater treatment plant in Hampstead. The payment is part of an amended agreement that will remain in effect until the Maryland Department of the Environment decides whether the county has to construct a nearly $2 million water-chilling system at the plant. Rather than install the costly chillers, county officials hope MDE will allow the plant to discharge wastewater warmer than the current 68-degree Fahrenheit limit, said J. Michael Evans, the county's director of public works.

The heat broke a 19-year record yesterday as it cranked up air conditioners, packed parks and inspired summerlike behavior for the fourth straight day.The 89-degree reading at Baltimore-Washington International Airport broke the record of 87 set in 1979 and was 30 degrees above the normal high, according to National Weather Service forecasters.The temperature hit 92 degrees at the Baltimore Custom House, but forecasters cautioned that the building's blacktopped roof sometimes throws off temperature readings.

WASHINGTON - The odds are dead even that the world's average temperature will increase at least 5 degrees by the end of the century, enough to trigger flooding, famine and drought across much of the globe, according to a new study in the journal Science. The study, published as world leaders meet in Germany to work on the 1997 Kyoto treaty to fight global warming, is the first time scientists have computed the likelihood that Earth would get warmer by specific degrees. The study was done by Tom Wigley, a senior scientist at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.

Sun worshipers heading to the beaches in Ocean City this weekend can expect to find fewer dead fish than early this week, when thousands washed ashore after a massive fish kill. Since Tuesday, public works crews driving backhoes have been hauling away truckloads of rotting Atlantic croakers killed by a sudden change in water temperatures. The last of the fish are expected to wash ashore over the next few days, according to officials with the Maryland Department of the Environment. Roughly a million of the pinkish croakers - ranging from 6 inches to 2 feet long - started landing on beaches from Delaware to Virginia on Saturday.

Electricity was restored today to more than 13,000 metropolitan area customers whose service was interrupted last night and early today when a thunderstorm downed power lines, a spokesman for the Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. said today.A utility spokesman said the customers all had their power returned by 7 a.m. Residents in the Marriottsville area of Howard County were the last to have their service restored.Art Slusark, a BG&E spokesman, said the storm interrupted power to about 6,000 customers in Baltimore County, 2,900 in Harford County, 1,000 in the city, 600 in Howard and about 500 in Westminster.

The winter that just won't quit dropped about 4 inches of snow on metropolitan Baltimore yesterday morning, took one life and unleashed an Arctic cold front that may produce record-breaking low temperatures this weekend.Yesterday's snowfall, the result of a fast-moving storm that moved up the East Coast as frigid air pushed in from the northwest, was limited to the Washington-Baltimore corridor, National Weather Service forecasters in Sterling, Va., said.Snowfall ranged from 4.1 inches at Baltimore-Washington International Airport to 2 inches at Riviera Beach in Anne Arundel County and an inch in Frederick.

Cordova, Alaska -- Oysterman Jim Aguiar had never had to deal with the bacterium Vibrio parahaemolyticus in his 25 years working the frigid waters of Prince William Sound. The dangerous microbe infected seafood in warmer waters, such as the Gulf of Mexico. Alaska was too cold. But the sound was gradually warming. By summer 2004, the temperature had risen just enough to poke above the crucial 59-degree mark. Cruise ship passengers who had eaten oysters were soon coming down with diarrhea, cramping and vomiting.

Day two of 1999's spring heat wave clung to Maryland like bare legs on a plastic slipcover yesterday as a record temperature of 97 degrees hit Baltimore-Washington International Airport and the mercury in downtown Baltimore reached 98.By contrast, the high for the same day a year ago was 74 degrees at BWI and 79 in Baltimore. The previous record for BWI was 95 degrees, set in 1984.The August-like weather came our way on a high pressure system that normally centers over Bermuda but shifted this week to the eastern United States.

The leafless trees realize it's still March, but they are perhaps the only ones.As the Baltimore area reveled in the second day of the year's first warm spell, carwashers, grass-cutters and even sunbathers made unseasonably early appearances.The goal for most people seemed to be simply to get outside -- whether to a park or a parking lot didn't seem to matter. With clear skies, stiff breezes and 80-degree temperatures, it was just too nice to stay inside.Children scampered everywhere, and dogs ran with abandon.

Temperature gauges approached triple digits Wednesday on the first day of summer, packing county pools, opening cooling centers and setting the stage for the season of swelter. Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport saw a high of 98 degrees around 3 p.m., missing the record of 100 set in 1931. With high humidity, the heat index topped 100 across the Baltimore area. The normal high for this time of year is 85 degrees. Chances for a record remain Thursday.