Waco Tribune-Herald readers like to talk about the weather, especially when it’s hot.

Last Sunday I asked you to describe in your own colorful way exactly how hot it is, and I offered some H-E-B gift cards for prizes. I gave a few examples — hotter than a $100 Rolex, for instance — and invited you to let your creative juices flow.

We will devote today’s space to as many of your answers as possible. Thanks for playing along — and for writing the column for me on a day when it’s too hot to think. I believe Tom Sawyer would be proud of me for pulling this off.

How hot is it?

“So hot the fire ants are wearing tiny little shoes.” — Mark Clark

“So hot I have to water my artificial flowers.” — Judy Clemons

“So hot the cows smell like barbecue.” — Tim Souders

“Don’t leave a weenie dog outside. It’ll come back on a bun.” — Gail Gardner

“I asked Satan if I could come down there to cool off.” — Nicole Lewis

“Hotter’n 10 acres of burning mesquite stumps.” — Howard L. Smith

“So hot the fish are drinking bottled water.” — Carla Drake

“So hot Grandpa’s rockin’ in his BVDs.” — Doris Lane

“The catfish are scratchin’ on our back door wanting flea powder.” — Tom Gutierrez

“So hot even the good witch Glinda melted into a puddle.” — Francesca Nyquist

“Hotter than the devil’s cast-iron commode.” — Sharon Wylie

“I just talked to a friend who’s a social worker in the prison system. The prisoners are saying to other prisoners they’re angry with: ‘I’m gonna beat the crap outta you in November!’ ” — Kay H. Wilson

“So hot the red ants are sunburned.” — Norma Pugh

“So hot the devil went home to cool off.” — Gary Morgan

“Hotter than a bath in a tub of Tabasco sauce.” — Sharon Griffith

“So hot the devil is jealous.” — Mel Qualls

“My rain gauge asked for a drink of water.” — Steve Jones

“So hot our quarter horses have shrunk to nickel horses.” — Mary Hudgins

“My lawn looks like I planted matchsticks.” — David Bower

“Hot enough to fry a sweet potato.” — Frances Buckner

“So hot the roadrunners have asbestos gloves to pull up their earthworms.” — Duane Lindsey

“Hotter’n a fat man’s pocketwatch.” — David Bass

“Hotter than a fried ice cube.” — Jean Behringer

“Hotter’n two mice dancing in a wool sock.” — Kyle D. James

“It’s so hot the corn was popping in the fields, and when the cows saw it they thought it was snowing and froze to death.” — Marion Becker

“Hotter than the hubs of hell.” — Chris Elmore

“It’s so hot my hot tub works great, and I don’t even have a hot tub.” — Charles A. Patti

“So hot we have to keep a potholder on the door handle to open the door.” — Brenda McWhorter

“It’s so hot at night the owls have stopped saying hoo and started asking why.” — Mark Clark

And what about the prizes? Well, honors for the most descriptive answer goes to Reotha Young. “It’s hotter than fish grease,” she reports.

Alan Rieger wins the prize for the most original answer. “It’s so hot I could blow a dust bubble,” he pants.

The nod for the most humorous response goes to Evelyn Sommerfeld, who mailed in two pages of answers to the question. Here’s a sampling:

“It’s hot as a pregnant hog in a dried mud puddle.”

“My sun tea boiled over.”

“We picked cobbler off our peach trees.”

But Evelyn’s best answer of all was this one:

“How hot is it? All I have on is the radio.”

Donnis Baggett is publisher and editor of the Waco Tribune-Herald . His email address is dbaggett@wacotrib.com. His mailing address is P.O. Box 2588, Waco, 76702-2588.