Statistics say it's been one of our hottest -- and coolest -- summers in more than a decade

On Monday during the extremely hot and humid conditions, the meteorologists at the National Weather Service office in Paducah did a deep dive into their computer to find a seemingly contradictory statistic about this summer so far.

Tuesday was the 11th day this summer to reach a heat index of 105 or higher. That's the second highest total over the past 13 summers. Paducah's average is five days. 

If we get one more, we'll tie with last year for the most 105-plus heat index days.

However, at the same time, meteorologists also found that by another measure, this has been our coolest summer in more than a decade.

So far this year, Paducah has reached 90 degrees only 16 times through July. Compare that to 43 days over 90 in 2018; 41 times in 2022; 39 times in 2016, and 31 times just last summer.

So if that makes sense, this is one of our cooler summers in a long time, but when it has been hot, it's been extremely hot.

You can see the breakout for yourself here .

On the Net:

NWS Paducah Weather Story