Hot Kansas in the news today

From Yahoo! News and the Associated Press today comes word that all that heat across Kansas, specifically, here, down in Wichita, is wreaking havoc on poultry: Kan. poultry farm loses 4,300 turkeys in heat wave. "WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A heat wave that has pushed temperatures well over 100 degrees has killed tens of thousands of turkeys and chickens in Kansas and North Carolina and left farmers across the lower part of the country struggling to cool off their flocks. In North Carolina, about 50,000 chickens died at a farm after the power went off for less than an hour. In Kansas, one couple lost 4,300 turkeys that took 26 hours to bury. "It felt like a war zone. It felt like hell," turkey grower Holly Capron said. Temperatures in Kansas on Sunday reached 110 degrees, with a heat index of 118. It was 106 in the buildings near Columbus where Capron and her husband raise 22,000 turkeys for Butterball LLC. She said they've been running big fans and fog nozzles in their poultry buildings, and they've had a tractor pulling a spray wagon to water down the birds. They lost 140 birds on Saturday, but nothing prepared them for Sunday, when 4,300 died. After receiving approval from state regulators, the Caprons, their workers and friends began digging a massive hole — 60 feet long, 40 feet wide and 10 feet deep — to bury the nearly 50-pound birds. They started at 11 p.m. Sunday, and the last turkey was buried 26 hours later. The crew worked around the clock. No one slept. "It was literally overwhelming during the night," Capron said. "I honestly wanted to start crying. My husband was in shock." She blamed the deaths on a heat spike that hit about 5:30 p.m. Sunday. The Kansas Department of Agriculture's Division of Animal Health confirmed that heat, not disease, caused the deaths, department spokeswoman Chelsea Good said. And sure, a cold front came through last evening and we're a bit cooler, sure, but the heat is supposed to return with somewhat of a vengeance within 2 days, maximum. It's supposed to be back up around 100 at least, for us, here in Kansas City. It could be hotter yet across Kansas and in Southern Kansas by this weekend.