What’s up with this warm weather?

By Victoria Lewis / Staff writer

During the month of September, the Hutchinson community has been experiencing a wave of unusual heat to begin the fall season, but students are enjoying the last of the warm weather for the year.

This month, Hutchinson has experienced three days where the daily high temperature was 100 degrees – from the 19th to the 21st, according to Weather Underground, and 17 days where the average high was above 90 degrees.

Even on days like these, the Hutchinson Community College athletes who play an outdoor sport still practice in the blazing sun.

Javar Strong, a defensive back for the football team and a native of Muscle Shoals, Ala. said practicing outdoors in this type of heat has been “challenging,” and “hotter than I expected.”

Though Strong is used to the warm temperatures of Alabama, not all of his teammates on the football team have had the same ease with the prolonged hot weather Kansas has had to offer this month.

“Some people don’t cope with the weather as well,” Strong said. “We’ve had some people pass out at practice this season. At first it was draining, but since I have been hydrating and taking care of my body more, it has been better.”

The team has been practicing mostly during the afternoon, being the hottest part of the day.

Unlike some, Strong has been in favor of the prolonged warm weather.

“I am not looking forward to winter, because being from Alabama, it’s just harder to adjust to the cold,” Strong said.

This month, the average high temperature for the area was 89.19 degrees and the low was 62.04 degrees, according to Weather Underground data from Wichita.

However, looking at data from 1991-2021, the average temperature range for September has been a high of 81.8 degrees Fahrenheit, a low of 63.3 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Climate-Data.Org. So far this month the daily high temperature has seen over a degree increase compared to the same time last year, meaning this is a particularly warm September.

Hayley Hughes, a sophomore from Kingman, who plays on the women’s basketball team at HutchCC, has lived in Kansas her entire life and said that “it was definitely a warmer September than usual.”

Hughes looks on the positive side.

“It’s been nice not having to wear sweats to run in the morning,” she said of  the team’s early-morning preseason conditioning on the football field. “Avoiding the cold is why I play an indoor sport.

“I have loved the hot weather – I’ve enjoyed this last bit of summer.”

As a born and bred Kansan, Hughes offers up a piece of advice for the upcoming months.

“Be prepared for anything and check your weather app before you get dressed in the morning because it can change really fast, even every hour,” Hughes said.

It seems only time will tell what the weather has in store for October.

Views: 225