100-degree contest is just warming up

What with all the excessive heat warnings of recent weeks, you’d think Marion County was having one of its hottest summers this year.

But unlike happened in five of the past six years, the mercury in the county’s official thermometer still hasn’t reached 100.

It came within a single degree Tuesday but didn’t cross the line even though the heat index, combining temperature and humidity, hit 109, and county thermometers other than the official one recorded highs of 101.

In all but one of the past six years, 100-degree heat was recorded in June or July.

This year, it appears both months will pass without the official thermometer hitting the century mark, despite prolonged periods in which it has come perilously close.

So far this year — as happened in 2020 — the mercury has hovered just barely below 100 through the first two months of summer.

That means there’s still time to enter the Record’s contest to predict when we’ll hit 100 degrees for the first time this year.

Entries are being accepted at https://mnks.us/contest/. Be the first to predict the correct day without going over and you’ll win a $50 certificate from the participating merchant of your choice along with bragging rights as the county’s best weather forecaster.

Influenced by recent experience with first 100-degree days, most contestants’ choices already have come and gone.

In 2019, we hit 100 on June 28. In 2021, it happened June 16. In 2022, it occurred June 21. In 2023, the temperature hit 100 for the first time July 25. Last year, it happened July 14. Only in 2020 did it not happen until Aug. 28.

Some forecasts predicted it would happen Tuesday, which would have been good news for a Hillsboro youth who would have had the winning entry if it had. But Tuesday’s official high was just short of making him victorious.

With cooler weather forecast for the next few days, there’s still time to enter. If your previous choice already has come and gone, you can enter a second time.

Will our first 100-degree day come as late as it did in 2020, or are we due for 100-degree weather sooner rather than later?

Make your choice and you’ll have something to do other than watch sweat roll off your brow. You can watch in as the mercury inches its way up into the triple-digit range and you beat the heat by winning.