The lethal warmth wave of July 1936 in the midst of what’s arguably the most well liked decade on file for the USA – Watts Up With That?

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One of the most widespread and devastating heat waves ever recorded in the United States occurred in the summer of 1936, right in the middle of arguably the hottest and driest decade in the nation. The decade of the 1930s is known for the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, both of which caused catastrophic human suffering in this country. Heat and lack of moisture in the Dust Bowl era not only destroyed huge amounts of crops, but also lost thousands of lives in heat, drought and economic hardship. This extreme heat wave was particularly fatal in high-density areas, where air conditioning was still in the early stages of development. The heat wave of 1936 began in late June, peaked in July, and didn’t end until September. Many of the all-time high temperature records set in numerous cities and states in the 1930s still stand today. Perhaps the hottest day ever recorded in the US occurred on July 14, 1936 when the average high was 96 ° F and 70% of the US was above 90 degrees.

All-time city records (left, courtesy) NOAA);

All-time state records (correct, courtesy) wunderground.com).

Note – Pennsylvania’s all-time high temperature record of 111 ° F was set during this heatwave on both July 9th and 10th in Phoenixville, Chester County.

Distribution of government all-time high temperature records over decades, with the highest number in the 1930s. Source: NOAA / NCDC

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The “Dust Bowl” years 1930-1936 brought some of the hottest summers ever to the US; especially in the Plains, Upper Midwest and Great Lakes in arguably the hottest decade on record for the United States (Source 1, Source 2). In addition, there were a number of droughts during this period that ruined crops everywhere in the Plains, where, for example, lush wheat fields became unproductive wasteland. The suffering of the Dust Bowl era came to life at the end of the decade in John Steinbeck’s book The Grapes of Wrath, which traces the migration of a poor farming family from drought-stricken Dust Bowl farmland to the state of California . The incessant drought in the central plains during these “Dust Bowl” years contributed in a “positive feedback” to the excessive heat in that solar energy was used almost exclusively to warm the ground and the lower atmosphere with little loss of energy from anything in the evaporation of soil moisture.

A staggering loss of life from the widespread and devastating July 1936 heat wave (Courtesy of The Bend Bulletin, Oregon)

The worst extreme heat in the summer of 1936 occurred in mid-July. In the week that ended July 18, thousands of people were killed due to the extreme heat and prolonged drought across the country. High temperatures in excess of 100 degrees (F) were common during this period, and numerous cities and states set their all-time high temperature records that still exist today (including the mid-Atlantic states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland).

Buried machinery on barn lot in Dallas, South Dakota, USA during the Dust Bowl, an agricultural, environmental, and economic disaster in the Great Plains of North America in 1936. Only a quarter of normal rainfall fell that summer, ruining crops and Pastures. The heat wave accompanied a drought that covered much of the Midwest and the plains until isolated rains finally broke through on August 28.

Some examples of the extreme heat that peaked in the Northern Plains and the upper Midwest on July 14, 1936 were 112 ° F near Chicago, Illinois, 108 ° F in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and 110 ° F in Bismarck, North Dakota. In Minneapolis, the high-temperature record set on July 14 is still the highest ever recorded there, and the heat caused 51 deaths in St. Paul alone on that particularly fatal day (source).

The front page of the July 13, 1936 issue of the St. Paul Daily News

The Central Atlantic region was not spared from this widespread extreme heat wave with high temperatures of 104 ° F on July 14 in Philly and Washington, DC. In fact, the highest temperatures ever recorded in New York City (106 ° F) and Baltimore, Maryland (107 ° F) were set on July 10, 1936. Even in Toronto, Canada, temperatures hit 100 ° F and the death toll reported for the heat wave there was 225, the largest increase in the city’s death rate since the 1918 flu pandemic (source).

Picture dated July 14, 1936 Toronto Evening Telegram shows residents of the “Birch Cliff” district sleeping outdoors

Another Headline on the Deadly Mid-July Heat Wave (July 14, 1936)

Even the last days of July 1936 saw some absolutely astonishing temperature readings as the relentless extreme heat persisted in many areas. For example, in Lincoln, Nebraska, a minimum temperature of 91 ° F was reported on the night of July 24-25, and the daily high on the 25th hit 115 ° F – still an all-time high temperature record. It is worth noting that the “urban heat island” effect did not have the unnatural warming effect on the low overnight temperatures that occur in many places in the world today. In August 1936, the extreme heat shifted slightly south and four southern states set their all-time high temperature records that still exist today (Arkansas: 120 ° F, Oklahoma: 120 ° F, Texas: 120 ° F and Louisiana: 116 ° F). (Data sources: Wikipedia; wunderground.com)

1936 – year of extremes

Interestingly, the exceptionally hot summer of 1936 actually followed one of the worst cold spells in US history and some of the same regions that suffered the deadly summer heat from the bitter winter cold (e.g. Northern Plains). The climatological summer (June-August) of 1936 was the warmest nationally recorded summer (since 1895) with an average temperature of 74.6 ° F (2nd warmest summer was that of 2006 with an average of 74.4 °) and July 1936 was the only warmest month ever recorded with an average of 77.4 ° F (before July 2006 around 0.1 ° C). Ironically, February 1936 was the coldest on record, with a national average temperature of 26.0 ° F (the coldest month was January 1977 with an average of 23.6 ° F).

In February 1936, North Dakota temperatures dropped as low as -60 ° F, an all-time state record, and Turtle Lake, North Dakota averaged -19.4 ° F for the entire month, the coldest average monthly temperature, that was ever measured in the US outside of Alaska. One North Dakota city, Langdon, experienced 41 consecutive days below zero (January 11 through February 20), the longest undertemperature (including highs) any location in the lower 48 has ever seen. (Source: wunderground. Com)

Meteorologist Paul Dorian
Peraton
peratonweather.com

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