Ahhh summer! Blast-furnace heat, tropical storms

No, the temperature didn't hit 100 degrees Tuesday. But the heat index certainly did.

The National Weather Service insists it didn't officially go any higher than 93 degrees. And today will be cooler — about 92 degrees.

Feel better? We didn't think so.

"No," said weather service meteorologist Frank Alsheimer with a rueful laugh. "Not much change. A touch lower." That is to say, maybe. AccuWeather.com, a private forecasting company, puts today's high at 94 degrees, a degree higher than Tuesday, with a heat index at 104. The Post and Courier is an AccuWeather.com customer.

Both the service and the company say there's a better chance of thunderstorms. Meanwhile, out at sea, hurricane forecasters are watching another "early" Cape Verde storm with a good chance of starting to spin and head toward the East Coast.

And Charleston County high school students enrolled in summer school have been in a building without air-conditioning for the past two days.

District officials rush-ordered a part to fix the air-conditioning unit, and that arrived on Tuesday, said Elliot Smalley, the district's executive director of communications. He said the air-conditioning should be working by this morning. Fans were placed in every classroom, and school leaders monitored the temperature, Smalley said. Students were encouraged to drink water from fountains, and ice water was available on Tuesday, he said. Students also were allowed to leave early.

About 185 students were enrolled summer classes at West Ashley High, and those are scheduled to end Thursday.

Meanwhile, the hurricane season has taken an ominous turn, with the fourth named storm barrelling into the Texas-Mexico border as a Category 1 hurricane. It's gotten off to a quick start. Research meteorologist Stan Goldenberg, with the federal Hurricane Research Division studied records back to 1944 and concluded that quick-start seasons tend to have at least the average number of storms, and often above average.

The Cape Verde season, when hurricanes form off Africa, normally runs from mid-August to mid-October. Those storms pose the greatest threat to the Lowcountry. This year, the first Cape Verde storm formed in early July. Federal forecasters called for a 65 percent chance of an above-average season," said meteorologist Dennis Feltgen, National Hurricane Center public affairs officer.

Reach Bo Petersen at 745-5852 or bpetersen@postandcourier.com; reach Diette Courrege at 937-5546 or dcourrege@postandcourier.com.