To avoid the rain: in most of the Northeast, Midwest, and Plains, it rains less in the spring than in the height of summer, but in many Southern states, it rains less in the summer than in the spring.

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Despite the increases, prices nationwide are still about 30 percent below the peak they reached at the height of the housing bubble in the summer of 2006.

WSJ: US home prices accelerate in November

Even in the height of the hot Jericho summer, Christian pilgrims can be seen clambering up the Mount of Temptation to pray at the Greek Orthodox Monastery of the Temptation, built into the side of the mountain.

BBC: A Biblical guide to the West Bank

While working towards his graduate degree he had the good fortune of landing a summer job at EA during the height of the gaming explosion in Seattle.

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But at the height of the market in the summer of 2006, they made a final decision to go rental, foreseeing that the city was about to be flooded with thousands of new condo units, according to Susi Yu, a senior vice president with the developer.

WSJ: Views From the Market Top

Some 23 servicemen from 3 Commando Brigade lost their lives in 2011 during a summer tour of duty that encompassed the height of the fighting season, while many more were injured.

BBC: Royal Marine Commandos training

Even during the height of summer, a cool breeze and misty fog often roll in over the pristine oceanside cliffs, offering a respite from the smothering desert heat that blankets the city farther inland.

BBC: The hidden treasures of seaside San Pedro

His father was a British consul in Moscow in 1935-38, and Norman's summer holidays from school were spent there at the height of Stalin's purges.

ECONOMIST: The unacknowledged giant