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Not the record for the day, or the year, or the decade -- the record for all-time in these parts.
It was back on July 3, 1966, that the mercury in Trenton -- once again, according to the National Weather Service -- hit 102 degrees for the first and only time.
"RECORD-SHATTERING HEAT BROILS CITY, N.J." screamed the front page of this very newspaper.
On the inside, the story detailed all the horrors the excessive heat was causing.
"Hamilton Township police reported road sections of Nottingham Way in front of Lieberman’s Wayside Manor and the New Jersey Fairgrounds cracking and protruding as much as four inches above the roadway," the paper read.
Later in the story, and due to the drain on electricity, "various sections of the city were requested to turn off home air conditioners."
By the way, ‘home air conditioners,’ based on some advertisements in that day’s newspaper, ran you upwards of $140.
No bargain there.
But you were able to get your house done in fancy new aluminum siding by Atlas Enterprises for the svelte sum of $299.
That said, neither air conditioning nor aluminum siding would’ve been of much help back on Sept. 13, 1922, out in El Azizia, Libya, where the highest-ever ever temperature -- 136 degrees -- was recorded.
To give you an idea of how hot that is, Polycaprolactone -- the stuff the dentist sticks in your mouth to make an impression -- melts at around 136 degrees, according to various Web sites.
But let’s get back to Trenton and the heat.
Seems a little low, that 102-degree mark, doesn’t it? Especially in light of all the 90-plus degree days we seem to have each summer.
"It’s just where we are in the world," Nickelsberg said. "Hundred-degree days are few and far between."
Good thing. Because this kind of heat is brutal. It’s like living on the equator.
Actually...
The city of Mbandaka, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, sits right on the equator.
Today’s forecast high out in Mbandaka? Try 93 degrees. Cool as ice, dare I say.
Jeff Edelstein’s columns appear every Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday. He can be reached at jedelstein@trentonian.com
