For the third straight day, temperatures in Wichita hovered at 100 degrees Sunday.
The temp didn't top a record: The record high for June 5 was 109 degrees in 1933.
But the unseasonably hot weather is expected to continue through Thursday — and this may be a harbinger for summer.
"We are only five days into June and this would rank one of the warmest, if not the warmest, since 1889," said Andy Kleinsasser, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wichita.
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No rain is in sight.
"From what memory serves me, we get hot summers when we have dry springs and once summer hits, the rain shuts off and it gets hotter and hotter," said Kleinsasser.
Among the hottest summers on record were the one in 1936, with temperatures averaging 85.3 degrees; 1980 and 1934, at 85.2; 1954, 84.5; 2010, 82.3; and 1956 with 81.8 degrees.
The one thing all those summers have in common? They had above-normal temperatures in June followed by heat in July and August.
"It all happens when we are in a drought — which portions of our areas are — and it's easier for the temperatures to warm up when there is no moisture in the ground," Kleinsasser said.
On Sunday, two patients were treated for heat-related symptoms in the emergency room at Via Christi Hospital on St. Francis. No other Wichita hospitals reported heat-related cases.
The heat has also rapidly sped up the Kansas wheat harvest, which was already stressed from drought.
Farmers were cutting fields with combines near Caldwell and Protection. Typically, the Kansas wheat harvest starts closer to June 15 along the Kansas southern border and creeps northward at 12 to 15 miles a day.
That won't be the case this year.
"We started June 2 and we are picking up more people cutting every hour," said Brian Harris, manager of the Farmers Cooperative Co. in Protection, which also serves Sitka and Ashland. "By tomorrow (Monday) we will be in full swing."
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