Those of us who have been on the planet for a while, and still have a working memory, remember worse. Not only was it hotter,for longer, the only AC was at the local Movie theaters.
Even the rich did not have AC in their cars. Only a very few had it in their homes. In truth, life was slower and simpler then but 117F was still very hot.
Deadly so.
History Tells Us the Heat Could Be Worse
Travis Zimpfer
July 25, 2011 1:41 PM
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Features,
Heat,
News,
Syndicated Local
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heat records,
Heat Wave of 1954,
Highest low temperature,
highest temperature ever in Illinois,
highest temperature ever in Missouri,
Kevin Grady,
Midwestern Regional Climate Center,
Nancy Wescott,
National Weather Service,
Tom Spriggs
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOX) – With over six days breaking the 100 degree mark this July, St. Louis has been a sticky, sweltering city.
But the heat wave of 2011 is nothing compared to the heat wave of 1954.
On July 14th of that year, the mercury hit 117 degrees in East St. Louis. That’s the hottest temperature ever recorded in Illinois. On the same day, Union, Missouri and Warsaw, Missouri beat that by one degree, also setting the record high temp in this state. All of those tempeatures were taken
in the shade.
From the end of June to the beginning of September, there were 22 days that were hotter than 100 degrees, and the weather took its toll on people.
“Through 18 July 1954, 137 deaths were attributed to the heat in Missouri and 47 deaths in Kansas,” according to
a report by Nancy Wescott and Kevin Grady of the Midwestern Regional Climate Center.
It also did some outrageous stuff to infrastructure across the Midwest: “The extreme heat was responsible for such things as contorted railroad tracks caused by expanding rails in Kansas . . . 50 instances of streets buckling . . . and a Kansas City weather beacon [malfunctioned] and forecast[ed] snow.”
That’s not to say 2011 isn’t a hot summer. This year has seen a few broken records of its own, including the
highest low temperature for a day.
“We’ve been struggling big time to get below 80 degrees each morning in many areas, and those have been setting some records, Tom Spriggs, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said.
“We’re not cooling off at night. The high temperatures during the day are not too unusual, but the night time lows . . . have been extraordinary.”
Spriggs believes that urbanization could be a cause of this new phenomenon because concrete holds heat in better than plant life, and there’s been a lot of development in the area in the last 100 years.
Fortunately, we won’t have a record setting day today; there will be a slight break in the heat, but Spriggs says it’s not going to be much of one.
“We’re still going to be looking at highs in the low 90s,” he says. “The heat index today is probably going to be topping out at around a hundred or a little over a hundred. If you want to call it a break, so be it.”
And there won’t be a whole lot of relief soon either. Temperatures will rise this week; on Wednesday, we might see another hundred degree day, and we could also hit the triple digit mark on Thursday when the extended excessive heat warning that’s blanketed the Metro Area for the last two weeks is set to expire.
“We’re not really out of this heat wave yet,” Spriggs says. “Just don’t let your guard down.”
Because who knows when we could see another hot summer like 1954.
DURING THIS CRISIS, THE EVENT WAS COMPARED TO THE GREAT DUST BOWL WHICH WAS ,AT THE TIME, CONSIDERED TO HAVE BEEN WORSE
FOR THOSE WHO CARE, THE GLOBAL WARMING HOCKEY STICK HYSTERIA DID NOT START UNTIL THE LATE 80'S.
It's nowhere even near me