Top 5: Mount Pleasant Humidity

So Wednesday’s oppressive heat was truly record-breaking, according to the South Carolina Climatology Office, which has tracked the heat index for 20 years.

The 7 p.m. heat index peak of 124 degrees surpassed that of any other July 13 on record, and it also may have made Mount Pleasant one of the hottest cities in the nation.

The National Weather Service, just about the only nationwide weather-tracking outfit in the game, doesn’t keep track of the highest heat index in the country. Some cities out west capped out Thursday with temperatures near 110, but they didn’t have humidity anywhere near what we experienced.

So here’s how we ranked, based on an informal look at the country’s traditionally hottest and most humid cities, which shows Mount Pleasant claiming the highest heat index around.

Meteorologists use a combination of temperature and dew point to calculate the heat index, which is supposed to be how hot it actually feels to the human body. We calculated the heat index by looking at the point on Wednesday when the dew point was closest to the temperature.

The good news is that we won’t see that kind of humidity this weekend.

“We’re going to struggle to meet 90 degrees through the weekend,” said Jonathan Lamb, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Charleston. “It’s going to be moderated for a couple days, because we have this front coming through.”

That means cloudy weather, Lamb said, but those clouds will block out some sun and keep things from heating up like they did earlier this week. But don’t get used to it. Warmer weather is just a few days away.

“Into next week, it looks like things heat right back up,” Lamb said.

Sunday could be a little stifling. WCBD-TV predicts a high of 96 with partly sunny skies.

Top 5 is a weekly look at how Mount Pleasant ranks compared to other cities across the country.