Quincy, Illinois Broke an 81-Year-Old Record for Heat this Week

This is gonna sound like an old Rodney Dangerfield joke setup, but it's a real thing. How hot was it in Quincy, Illinois this week? Well, I gotta tell you..."It's so hot I saw a dog chasing a cat, and they were both walking." That's an exaggeration, but it was hot enough that Quincy just broke an 81-year-old heat record.

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Let's pretend that I was smart enough to find this myself instead of my (much smarter than me) meteorologist wife telling me. The National Weather Service shared this graphic showing heat records for April 4. Notice April 4, 2023 recorded the highest temperature on this date in history.

The high of 87 on Tuesday, April 4, 2023 topped the previous record of 86 recorded way back in 1942. Notice also that it's one of only three times in recorded weather history that April 4 reached 80 or higher anytime.

It was that astronomically high temperature that contributed to conditions that later produced tornadic thunderstorms that would cause massive damage, injuries and unfortunately death in Missouri and Illinois.

The good news is the rest of this week and early next look fairly comfortable with cool temps between now and the weekend with more heat headed our way by Sunday according to The Weather Channel.