Summer 2013 continues to bring an assortment of wild, dangerous and volatile weather.
The raging wildfires in the western United States continue to burn, and 19 firefighters from an entire unit lost their lives battling one of those fires in Arizona.
Heavy thunderstorms, along with high winds and hail, have continued to pummel the eastern third of the country. There has been severe damage in many regions caused by flash flooding. Record heat continues to broil the West and Southwest with no relief in sight.
This weather pattern bears a similar resemblance to the weather patterns in the summers of 1938 and ’60. Those summers had the same type of extreme weather conditions across the country, and both culminated with two memorable hurricanes: the Great New England Hurricane of Sept. 21, 1938, and Hurricane Donna, which slammed the Eastern Seaboard from Florida to Maine Sept. 12, 1960. Both storms caused damage in the millions of dollars.
Will weather history repeat itself again? It is a possibility.
John Amato
Fresh Meadows
