Filtered Rayleigh scattering in weakly ionized plasmas was measured using a system that pairs the frequency tripled output of a Ti:sapphire laser with a narrow linewidth atomic mercury. The Rayleigh scattering was used to infer the gas temperature, while the atomic mercury filter served to suppress spurious background. By comparing contracted temperature profiles to calculations, it is possible to infer the width of the current distribution in the contracted plasmas. As the current of the discharge increased, the axial temperature increased, while the width of the current distribution decreased.