Almost 5 Months After the Blizzard, Nature Tries to Cook My Gizzard

This picture was taken on 2/16/2007 out our front window here in Lake Cicott by my wife Cindy. I thought with the hot weather the snow might be refreshing
-Paul E. Kovacs

I wanted to commend you Paul on a great idea! To be able to show snow in July is a dream come true for me. As everybody knows I love snow! This picture is already working. I feel better already! It is not only because I am sitting in the air conditioning. Now it is all coming back to me like it was yesterday! It is hard to believe it will feel about 110 degrees warmer than it did just over 5 months ago when a blizzard ravaged our area. It was our snowiest blizzard on record. I was so excited I did not feel the cold at all. I put on layers and celebrated. I will never forget making an igloo with Ross Ellet who was then our weekend meteorologist. Ross says hi to everybody and liked the snow so much he took a TV job in Beckley, West Virginia where they receive plenty of snow. I am relieved Lee Ann Okuly our new weekend meteorologist is also snow-lover and is ready to make an igloo and a WLFI snowman. She fits in very well with our weather team. Welcome Lee Ann! Back in February, those were the good old days, when Lafayette was transformed into a winter wonderland. I was not amused when the snow melted and now you know why. Many folks felt my pain, but others were elated and wishing for hot summer weather.

Remember to be careful what you wish for. Now I know what a turkey feels like when you put it in an oven. It is not pleasant. I can feel my gizzard cooking when I walk out the door. I know a gizzard is only found in birds to aid in the digestion of seeds, but it is so hot nature is certainly making us all feel like turkeys out there today. You walk outside and you literally wear the air. So on my list of ways to beat the heat today, I think looking at this picture above as often as possible will do along with a nice trip to the library. My girls had plenty of pool time over the weekend. You can also watch our newscast tonight and I will help keep those cool thoughts going because highs may only reach the 70s by late week and the weekend. This will be a short-lived heat wave. Let's keep the positive thoughts rolling. I am your Norman Vincent Peale today!



Hot flash! Another breaking story is that I did find some Indiana sweet corn. This is almost the equivalent of finding Maryland blue crabs. Almost! This is a huge compliment, believe me. I used to delight in cooking live crabs with my grandfather and this weekend I cooked up the corn in style. It was so hot, I could have cooked those ears up on the sidewalk, but I did it the right way and put them on the grill. When it was ready I brought it back in the air conditioning and let it melt in my family's mouths. It was a sweet corn picnic to remember. You can see the corn stand I found on Greenbush Street above. It sold out within 4 hours and I can taste why!



The sweet corn is yet another way to beat the heat. The latest models are indicating we will have our highest heat index values (temperature and dewpoint combined in the shade) since eary August. It looks like today will feel like the middle to upper 90s with 100 possible by Tuesday. But we should not complain. Just take a look at why below!



Death Valley holds the record for the hottest weather in North America and is just two degrees shy of the all-time world record set in Libya. The amazing part is that Death Valley recorded a high of 121 degrees on Friday or just 15 degrees shy of the world record. Ground temperatures reached 190 degrees in the sun! Low temperatures were 105 degrees on Friday morning and even with the low humidity it is not even in the same world with our 3 day heat wave we are experiencing.

The good news is that nature is sending us some free air conditioning by Wednesday and especially late this week. There are concerns about severe weather and so far this year it has been a little too quiet by Indiana standards. I will have your blog question and ansower of the day on Tuesday dealing with this and track the latest storms on Live Doppler 18. Wednesday looks like the most active day. Stay tuned, stay safe, and for now stay cool! Thanks for all your support. You can call me a turkey, but for now I am going to scroll back up and look at that snow picture for awhile.