Unless you spent the last month in a cave without television, internet, fax, phone or paper, you know it’s been extremely hot. But did you know that in the 130+ years of record keeping, no month was hotter than the one we just experienced here in Louisville?

The heat was a constant. The first 20 days of August featured temperatures at or above 90 degrees, and most days were well above 90. Ten times the mercury topped out at 99 degrees or higher. Five times we topped out above 100! The records kept falling like a steady drum beat. No less than 11 record temperatures were tied or set, including a 105-degree reading set on the 16, which was good for the hottest temperature ever recorded during the month of August!

The average high temperature for the month turned out to be 96 degrees, while the average low was 74. Add these two numbers together and divide by two to get the mean temperature for the month. That mean temperature turns out to be 85.0 degrees. Exactly two degrees higher than the previous highest ever recorded for the month of August! It wasn’t just the hottest August, however, it was also the hottest month ever recorded in Louisville. To put this into perspective, the previous record was a mean temperature of 84.2 degrees set 106 years ago during July 1901 -- wow!

Fortunately for us, August is now behind us and the worst of the 2007 Heat Wave appears to be behind us as well. Although we haven’t seen a normal high temperature in more than a month, climatological averages fall pretty fast this time of the year as we head into the fall season. In fact, normal highs during the first of September are only 83 degrees. By the end of the month, they will be near 75. By the end of October, they will be in the low 60’s! You see, we are definitely heading in the right direction. Not that we won’t see more hot temperatures in the near future. It just becomes increasingly unlikely that they will be as hot as we draw closer to autumn.

Unfortunately, the extreme heat has also corresponded with extreme drought across parts of Kentuckiana. Right now, the entire region is either experiencing severe or extreme drought conditions. Louisville is now nearly 8 inches below normal for the year in the rainfall category while Bowling Green is a staggering 14 inches behind on the year. This doesn’t bold well heading into the fall considering September and October are typically our driest months -- something we’ll be watching very carefully in the days and weeks ahead.