HOW HOT IS IT? HOT ENOUGH TO MELT THE TAR OFF POLES

(Ed.'s Note: Hot enough for you? With the end of Dog Days ( between July 3rd and August 11th each year) on the horizon, local residents are breathing a sigh of relief that there is an official end to the heat. But this is South Texas and summer tends to last just a little longer than in other parts of the country. This photo was sent to us by one of our readers showing streams of tar pitch melting off light poles downtown. Some forms of this soft tar have melting points of between 80 to 110 degrees F., and recently the temperature index has reached up to 110, making the phenomenon in the photo above a common occurrence. If you look closely at the light poles, you can see that the tops are bleached dry wood while the bottom parts that still have tar are darker. Anyway, avoid scenes like this if you want to avoid a heat stroke. Just about all the light poles downtown have their own little pool of tar oozing onto the sidewalk nowadays.)