The blast furnace we're all feeling can be life threatening. In fact, the National Weather Service confirms there are an average of 100 deaths each year related to the heat, making it "the" most dangerous type of weather phenomenon we face.
But how can we find new ways to tell you for the third or fourth time since we started seeing summer temperatures that's it's hot. Really hot.
There are dozens of words or phrases you can use to describe our summer temperatures. From calefaction to warmth, there are only so many ways to tell you what you already know.
In the past, we have tried frying up eggs on black asphalt. They need about 160 degrees to truly fry up.
We've tried baking cookies on a car's dashboard. After almost three hours, it's only a gooey mess, but cookies need 350 degrees to properly cook.
So, probably the best way to tell you is the fact that the national weather service issued an advisory, which means the heat can be life threatening.
"In the eastern panhandle, we're actually approaching out criteria for heat advisories so we've issued that and it's very rare that we issue that. Heat is the number one weather killer, more people die from that than hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, any of that," says National Weather Service Meteorologist Sarah Johnson.
Try to stay out of the heat, and if you can't, make sure to drink plenty of water over sports drinks. And if you realize you're not longer sweating, you're already in trouble.
"If you're not sweating and you're not moist, there may be a problem. Number one, you gotta drink fluids, gotta re- hydrate if you're out in this kind of heat," according to Texas Tech Physician Dr. Whit Walker.
And don't forget about your pets. They can't sweat like we can, and according to a funny picture and caption posted on the internet, we're getting dangerously near the melting point of cats.
Just kidding.
Stay hydrated, watch out for neighbors, the elderly and children and you'll beat the panhandle heat in cool fashion.
In comparison to last year, we are ahead of 2011's total rainfall, so we're in pretty good shape... however the rest of the country on whole is seeing its worst drought since the 1950's.
