Heat index could hit 105 Wednesday in Midlands

The temperature reached 101 degrees in Columbia Tuesday, breaking a record for the date set in 1920, according to the National Weather Service.

The temperature hit 101 degrees at 5:11 p.m. at the Jim Hamilton-H.B. Owens Airport in downtown Columbia. The Columbia Metropolitan Airport in Cayce remained at 100.

The run of hot weather in the Midlands, including several days of 100+ forecasts, started Saturday and is expected to continue the next several days.

Wednesday’s high is expected to be 101 with the heat index possibly hitting 05 degrees the National Weather Service said.

The heat index is a measurement that combines the air temperature and humidity in an attempt to measure how hot the temperature feels to the body.

Starting Wednesday, the city of Columbia is opening misting stations from noon until 7 p.m. on days when the heat index reaches 90 degrees or higher.

The stations are at: Owens Field, 1351 Jim Hamilton Blvd.; Rosewood Park, 901 South Holly St.; Hyatt Park, 950 Jackson Ave.; Martin Luther King (MLK) Park, 2300 Greene St.; Finlay Park, 930 Laurel St.; and Riverfront Park, 312 Laurel St.

Highs Thursday, Friday and Saturday are expected to cool down to the upper 90s.

Evenings shouldn’t be quite as hot. Tuesday and Wednesday evenings will be partly cloudy, with a low of 77, just a bit above normal for this time of year.

Rain is not a certainty this week. But there is a 30 percent chance of scattered but severe thunderstorms Thursday through Saturday.

This story was originally published June 16, 2015 at 3:13 PM.