A Really Long, Hot Summer.

• Position: Brief Article

La Nina--the sister of El Nino--has come calling across the United States this year, and farmers and fire-fighters wish she would leave town soon.

La Nina, which brought most of the United States its mildest winter on record in 1999-2000, is a pool of cool water in the Pacific ocean. It affects the jet stream so that the spring thunderstorms that usually bathe Southern states and the upper Midwest are raining on someone else. The weather and drought patterns in 2000 are expected to mimic the most costly weather disaster in U.S. history, the 1988 drought that resulted in $40 billion in losses.

Virginia, Ohio, Minnesota, New Jersey and Pennsylvania have enacted substantial aid packages for farmers. Some states--such as New Mexico and Nebraska--are enacting permanent drought preparedness programs.

Representative Joe Stell, a rancher in southern New Mexico, said his district has received only 7 to 8 inches of rain each year for the last three years--about one-third less than normal. Some ranchers, he said, may be forced out of business and that also will affect the economies of surrounding communities.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources' Water Survey Division reports the rainfall deficits since July 1999 are similar to the early stages of historic droughts. Dry soil conditions...