Grand-Daddy of August Heat Waves Slam Dunked By Storm Complex

Here is Deion after playing basketball out in the great heat wave of 2007 for more than 7 hours on Saturday. He is one of many that is glad the great heat wave of 2007 is now over after 9 consecutive days at 90 degrees or above. Do not worry, he did survive. Well, barely. He certainly knows our weather team means business now when we give heat safety tips. The heat wave finally came to an end thanks to a storm complex slam-dunked parts of the area with heavy rain, including just over an inch in Otterbein. Areas on the southside of Lafayette recorded over a half-inch of rain which was the heaviest rain in nearly 3 weeks. Brady Lane was on the verge of becoming the Brady Desert. This is just the beginning of nature's August version of March Madness. I have rain chances in the forecast 6 of the next 7 days. The forecast rain amounts are quite impressive as you can see below. Now it is summer and I cannot promise everybody rain, but this is a start!

This is what I call championship weather! It will not rain all day, it will be cooler, and we should still be able to salvage most of our plans this weekend. This past weekend Deion's team won the Buckingham Brawl which is the best basketball tournament I have ever been involved in. The tournament began at 8 a.m. and did not finish up until well past 5 p.m. The good news is that we had a big cookout between the morning and afternoon sessions to rest a little. Most teams played about 10 games up to 15. There were 10 teams composed of 4 players each. Everybody took frequent water breaks and amazingly nobody developed any heat-related illnesses. Here are some more pictures from all the great action. There were some great players out there!

Here is the championship team's one shining moment. I took this picture as quickly as I could so they could go get some more water!

The runners-up were certainly the big winners as well. If there was ever a day every team deserved a trophy it was today. Everybody played good, clean basketball. A special thanks once again to Boyd and Nancy Wheeler and their family that have helped to make this a summer highlight for so many in Lafayette.