American Notes WEATHER

Comfort has not been the only thing destroyed by this summer's steam-bath weather. Some lives have been snuffed out too. Cook County Chief Medical Examiner Robert Stein counts 39 heat-related deaths so far in Chicago and its environs. Missouri has registered 30 deaths and 572 cases of heat-related illness. (The term encompasses both heatstroke and other conditions, like heart trouble, that are aggravated by the hot weather.) Many of the victims are old, poor or both. But not all: two men in their 20s died competing in New York City footraces.

Authorities suspect many heat deaths go unreported as such; they are registered as fatalities from heart attack, stroke or other illness. Healthworkers will eventually compare actual deaths with normal mortality statistics to get a more accurate figure. On that basis, the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta will compare this year's toll with a record of more than 1,700 deaths in the scorching summer of 1980. This year air conditioning is more prevalent. But the nation also has more heat-susceptible elderly people -- and there may still be more sweltering weeks ahead.