When It's Hot, It's Hot!

Trey Smith

I must admit, we're feeling a bit guilty in Southwest Washington. While nearly 60% of the nation deals with drought and triple digit high temperatures, we're having a most delightful summer. We've received just enough precipitation to keep the plants green and healthy, but not too much.

To illustrate how different our summer has been from most, I took a gander at my wife's hometown -- Hot Springs, Arkansas -- to see how their July compares to ours. So far this month, their highest high has been 108 stifling degrees! Our high temperature to date -- we've hit it on two occasions -- is a mild 78 degrees. Most of our high temperatures have ranged from the low 60s to around 70.

Very, very pleasant weather, if I do say so myself!

But really to show the difference between there and here, we need to look at the lowest recorded low for July to this point. In Hot Springs, they only have dropped below 80 degrees one time! Their lowest low sits at 79 degrees or 1 degree MORE than our highest high.

My poor brother calls Kansas City, Missouri home. They have been gripped by the worst heat wave in over 70 years! So far this month, the average high in KC has been a sweltering 99.4 degrees that includes 13 days in which the daily high temperature has reached 100 degrees or above (109 degrees is the highest high).

Those sorts of temperatures simply boggle my mind. I'm really glad I live here...in the still temperate zone!