Weather

Winds and waves widened South Korea's worst oil spill ever along its pristine southern coast Wednesday, suffocating tens of thousands of fish, wiping out residents' livelihoods and threatening tourists and resort operators in nearby islands. About 120 vessels and two helicopters were fighting to contain the slick, caused when the Sea Prince, a Cyprus-registered tanker, began leaking an estimated 700 tons of fuel oil after running aground in a fierce typhoon Sunday.

At least five people died of heat-related causes and hundreds were hospitalized as Italy's heat wave showed no sign of loosening its grip Sunday. The mercury climbed above 95 in most Italian cities. On Saturday, Milan registered a day's record of 100.

A heat wave stifling much of Europe this week set a record in Paris on Friday and was blamed for the deaths of two hikers and an elderly camper in France. In Spain, where temperatures soared as high as 111 degrees this week, authorities blamed the heat wave for 10 deaths.

City authorities Tuesday raised the death toll in Chicago's heat disaster to 376 and said the number of deaths at least partly attributable to five days of 100-degree heat could reach 500. Although the flow of bodies into Cook County Morgue finally slowed to a trickle Tuesday, 120 corpses still await autopsies. With all 222 bays filled, morgue officials over the weekend had to call in refrigeration trucks to handle the overflow of bodies, most of them of elderly people.

Temperatures dipped into the 80s and 90s across the eastern half of the nation Monday, bringing welcome relief from the weeklong heat wave blamed for more than 300 deaths in the Midwest and East. In Chicago, 179 people were confirmed dead from heatrelated causes. Many of them were sick and elderly.

With the air-conditioning system conked out, workers set up fans and reopened the Washington Monument on Friday. But it got too hot again, and the famous obelisk was closed for a second day. Despite the punishing heat, hundreds of tourists trudged into the 555-foot monument Friday. Elevator operator Michael Wilt told one group, "Stay as long as you want, and leave before you start to feel bad."

Tropical Storm Chantal showed signs Friday of gradual strengthening and a shift to the northwest, but the 40-mph storm remained far from land in the Atlantic. By today "it should get interesting. It will have died away, or it will have strengthened significantly," said National Hurricane Center forecaster Steve Lyons. "It could still go either way."

After the storm. Gary Gwinn, 14, of Spokane, saws one of dozens of trees that fell on his grandfather's farm near Garfield on Sunday. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

Blasting, razor-sharp ice shards that hailed down Sunday on the Inland Northwest have shredded what could have been a banner year for many farmers. From Whitman County, where officials Wednesday estimated crop and structural damage at $50 million, to Okanogan County, where glassy golf ball-sized stones ripped through more than $15 million in fruit, growers are counting their losses.

Charles Heffernan, left, and his brother, Christopher, beat the heat with a garden hose in Battle Creek, Mich. Photo by Associated Press

Rob Krassowski and Andy Loomer, of Boy Scouts Troop 33, help clean up broken glass. Photo by Kristy MacDonald/The Spokesman-Review

A thunderstorm Thursday evening ripped through the Inland Northwest, knocking down trees and power lines and causing some isolated power outages. Throughout Eastern Washington and North Idaho, firefighters responded to reports of small lightning-strike fires, as well as downed power lines and trees from about 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Susan Nielsen, a Washington Water Power spokeswoman, said the storm caused isolated power outages in Spokane, Kellogg, Sandpoint, Pullman, Moscow and Lewiston.

Hordes of campers who had piled into North Idaho campgrounds for the Fourth of July weekend packed up soggy clothes and damp spirits Monday to make an early departure. "We stuck it out until today and finally decided we've had it," said Coeur d'Alene resident Dave Grant.

Strong winds and rain sent a locust tree crashing onto Rick Miner's house Sunday. Photo by Molly O'Hara/The Spokesman-Review

Railway tracks have buckled. Scottish roads are melting. One sunbather's skirt caught fire. Not everyone would call temperatures in the high 80s a heat wave. But to the fair-skinned British, more used to drizzle and chill, summer has arrived with a vengeance.

More than 3 inches of rain an hour submerged parts of Virginia on Tuesday, sweeping away cars and killing a man caught in swirling currents. A 3-year-old girl was missing after being swept into a swollen stream. A Coast Guard helicopter hoisted 10 families to safety along the Robinson River in the state's central region, including two 11-year-old boys rescued from a tree. "You can design for this or plan for it all you want, but you can't harness the force of nature," said Robert Johannis, who helped fish two men out of a flooded truck in the river.

The Bay Area's record-breaking heat wave eased slightly Monday after temperatures reached 99 in San Francisco on Sunday and even higher elsewhere. The fourth day of sweltering temperatures drove smog readings to their highest level in a decade, gave a jump start to the summer fire season, cut power to thousands of homes and contributed to a variety of other problems.

Timberlake-area residents take a look at what is left of the dam. Photo by Associated Press

Three children frolic at a water fountain in New York Tuesday. Photo by Associated Press