Nothing defines summer more to me than the feeling of afternoon heat.
With the scope of the Inlander's Summer Guide issue running from mid-June through to the official final day of summer in late-September, we'll run the gamut of what it means to feel the heat. As I write this on a patio chair on an early-June afternoon, it's not quite warm enough to say it's hot — the sun is behind a cloud, and the breeze is pushing me back inside.
A quick glance at the forecast shows that summer is indeed just around the corner, with highs in the 80s before this issue is even set to hit the newsstands.
For mid-June, as the transition from spring into summer takes place in earnest, an afternoon in the 80s will feel almost oppressively hot. It's a sensation I'll enjoy, even if I'm not fully prepared for it.
By July and August, when my body is acclimated to the heat and we're slogging through a triple-digit heat wave, temperatures in the 80s would be a welcome relief. Last year saw a record-setting, three-day run of triple digits in early July. In 2023, a triple-digit run came in mid-August, and 2022's landed between the two, at the end of July.
It's on those days, when overnight lows bottom out above 70, that I wonder: What was I thinking just a few weeks prior, calling it "hot" when the mercury barely rose into the low-80s?
For many, Labor Day marks the end of summer. It's when schools around the region begin welcoming students back to class and the days begin growing noticeably shorter at a disconcerting pace. It's those final weeks, after Labor Day but before the start of autumn, that the heat once again feels right. After a few months of living through it, hot afternoons have become routine. The new outlier of cold then starts to creep back.
On the last official day of summer last year, Sept. 21, the low fell to the mid-40s. A week later, it was down almost to freezing. When it starts to cool and the afternoon heat no longer lasts long into the evening, those final few days of hot summer weather are as welcome as ever.
It's almost enough to make me miss feeling midsummer's triple-digit heat. ♦
