Carbondale may not have hit the100 degree mark yesterday, but it is safe to say the heat has arrived.

Yesterday marked the fifth straight day of temperatures above 90 degrees in Carbondale, and residents are feeling the heat.

I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have air conditioning, Jeff Gibbons, a senior in zoology from Homewood, said.

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Gibbons added that he would not go to the outdoor Sunset Concert until it was dark because of the heat.

Heather Walczak, a senior in biological science from Evergreen Park, said the heat does not affect her very much.

I used to go to Arizona State, where it got up to 110, so this is nothing, she said. It was a little less humid there, so that was better.

Doc Horsley, an AMS meteorologist in the geography department, said he recorded a 98 degree temperature at his weather station Thursday afternoon. He said this temperature is not uncommon for Southern Illinois during July.

He said the last time the official temperature reached 100 degrees in Carbondale was during August of 1991.

Thursday’s high humidity made the weather feel even hotter.

Horsley said he recorded a heat index of 106 degrees Thursday. He said the heat index is a theoretical measure of the effects humidity and temperature have on a person’s skin.

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It’s the temperature the skin feels with the combination of heat

see HEAT, page 6