Temperatures soared across Kansas again on Friday as searing heat settled in for a weekend stay.

So, how hot did it get in Lawrence?

 Water usage increased considerably and was still on the way up by late afternoon.

 A horse demonstration scheduled for Sunday, on the opening weekend of the Douglas County Free Fair, was canceled.

 The area’s corn crop was on the verge of destruction.

 And at 4 p.m., the official Lawrence temperature was 102 degrees.

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s 98 or 106, hot is hot,” said Matt Wolters, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Topeka.

The Douglas County Free Fair will get off to a hot start today, as the temperature again was expected to rise above 100 degrees. The National Weather Service has again posted a heat advisory for today.

The heat caused the cancellation of Sunday’s therapeutic horse riding demonstration, said Margaret Kalb, executive secretary for the fair board.

Water usage up

The demonstration involved showing handicapped youths how to ride a horse. A group of horse owners donate their horses for that purpose. The group decided it would be too hot for the youths to participate, Kalb said.

Otherwise, the fair goes on.

“The kids who show their horses and livestock have been through this before, and they know how to take care of their animals and themselves,” Kalb said.

Kalb said she wasn’t sure how much the heat would affect attendance at the fair.

“If you are a true fair-goer, you’ll be here anyway,” she said.

Lawrence water usage soared Wednesday through Friday, city officials said. Though the final tally won’t be available until Monday, water usage Friday was expected to hit about 24.5 million gallons, the high for the week, officials said.

Water usage was approaching the record level of Aug. 28, 2000, when 25.1 million gallons were used.

Extended dry weather taxes the city’s water treatment plant. City officials say the public could assist by conserving water using various means, including watering lawns early in the morning, mulching flowers and shrubs to reduce evaporation losses, taking short showers and washing only full loads of laundry.

Trying to keep cool

Westar Energy, which provides electricity to Lawrence, didn’t have figures available Friday afternoon, but a spokesman said usage was up. Westar was not having any problems meeting demand, officials said.

Demand at the Baldwin power plant had reached 7,500 kilowatts as of 4:30 p.m. Friday, said Terry McKinney, director of utilities. The record for the city is 8,285 kilowatts set in August 2000.

Attendance was up to 2,000 people at the Lawrence Outdoor Aquatic Center and 900 at the indoor center, aquatics supervisor Jimmy Gibbs said. But even the attraction of swimming pools on 100-degree days has its limits, Gibbs said. He didn’t know if attendance would continue to climb if it got hotter.

“Even on a very hot day, with some people it just gets to the point where you don’t even want to be at the pool,” he said.

High heat and lack of rain has put the area corn crop on the critical list. Even a good rain today and lower temperatures the rest of the summer probably wouldn’t save much of the corn crop, said Bill Wood, crop specialist for Kansas State University’s Douglas County Extension Service.

“The soybeans still have potential, but that goes down every day,” Wood said.

Today’s temperature should again hit about 102 degrees, the weather service predicted. Taking the humidity into account, it will feel like it’s as hot as 110 degrees.

The first chance for relief comes Sunday afternoon, but it’s not much. The temperature then is forecast to be in the upper 90s, with a 30 percent chance of thunderstorms.

Temperatures through most of next week are expected to be in the mid to upper 90s.

The last significant rainfall in Lawrence was 0.67 inches July 4.