I'll never forget the day I covered Latino family day at the Kern County Fair four years ago. As I interviewed a Folklorico dancer, our makeup dripped down both of our faces. Then, suddenly, I was blind. My mascara had run into my eyes and they were on fire. I squeezed my eyes shut. The dancer ran and got me a tissue. I powered through the interview, unable to see my writing on my notepad.

I love the fair, but I don't love the heat. Every year, we can count on the fair to bring the last bastion of summer and remind us that it ain't fall yet. Temperatures usually soar to the upper 90s, and with minimal shade at the fairgrounds, it can feel like triple degree heat.

But this year, something is different. Today, as the fair opens to the masses, the predicted high is 77 degrees! Tomorrow, it's supposed to be 68, and it might even rain on Friday. What is going on?

To try to make some sense of this phenomenon, I reached back into the National Weather Service archives for some context. Since this year's fair is from Sept. 19 to 30, I looked at the high temps for the 19th and the 30th from 1996 to 2006. Then I did some math to find the average high for that time period for each year. I also listed which dates had triple digits.

What I found is that the past couple of years have actually been kind of mild for the fair. But, 2003 was a doozy! And that was the year I suffered from sweat-induced blindness.

Check out these stats:

Sept. 2006 9/19 - 93 9/30 - 81 Ave: 83	Sept. 2005 9/19 - 88 9/30 - 96 Ave: 87	Sept. 2004 9/19 - 74 9/30 - 78 Ave: 85
Sept. 2003 9/19 - 95 9/30 - 89 Ave: 95 (21 - 105; 22 - 105; 23 - 104)!!!	Sept. 2002 9/19 - 99 9/30 - 78 Ave: 92 (23 - 100)	Sept. 2001 9/19 - 94 9/30 - 93 Ave: 90
Sept. 2000 9/19 - 99 9/30 - 89 Ave: 88 (20 - 101)	Sept. 1999 9/19 - 84 9/30 - 96 Ave: 90	Sept. 1998 9/19 - 83 9/30 - 79 Ave: 79
Sept. 1997 9/19 - 84 9/30 - 96 Ave: 92 (29 - 100)	Sept. 1996 9/19 - 87 9/30 - 95 Ave: 91	Average high during 9/19-9/30 for all 11 years: 83 degrees