Hotter Than It’s Ever Felt: Tuesday’s Heat Index Shatters Records Across the Tristate

The air was about as humid as you'll ever feel.- Eyewitness News Chief Meteorologist Wayne Hart.

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2026 will likely go down in the record books as one of the 'hottest' days in the history of southern Indiana and western Kentucky. While we have certainly had higher readings on the thermometer, near-record dew points made the air outside hotter and muggier than it's ever seemed before.

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For example, at the Evansville Regional Airport, a dew point of 80 was recorded just before 1pm Tuesday. According to Wayne Hart, that was a near record. It's just one point shy of the all-time mark here in the Tristate. That dew point drove the heat index in Evansville up to a whopping 112 degrees. But there were some areas- particularly in western Kentucky- where it felt even worse.

Greenville (Muhlenberg County) recorded a heat index of 117. About 45 minutes north, in my hometown of Owensboro (Daviess County), we climbed up to 119 degrees. It was BRUTAL. I usually don't mind the combination of heat and humidity (I'd rather be hot and sweaty than cold and shivering any day), but Tuesday was almost unbearable even for me.

But there were readings even hotter and stickier than those. Morganfield, Kentucky  (Henderson County) topped out at 120 degrees. In Mayfield (Graves County), it felt like it was 122.

But the hottest reading in western Kentucky yesterday? That was recorded down in Murray (Calloway County) where the heat index topped out at 124 degrees Fahrenheit. Folks there might as well have been sitting on the surface of the sun. That sounds unimaginable.

Fingers crossed that Wayne Hart is correct. Hopefully, Tuesday's air is as humid as we'll ever feel.  The good news is we're getting some much-needed relief from it. Mother Nature is serving up three consecutive days of highs near 80 with very little humidity. But, don't get too used to it. According to the Eyewitness News forecast, the words "humid" and "very humid" will storm back into our forecast by the weekend.