Hottest Q-C day ever was 72 years ago today
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By Amy Driscoll | Sunday, July 20, 2008 |
All time heat records in the Tri-City area were smashed today when the temperature jumped to 111 degrees at 2 p.m. leaving in its wake 14 additional dead and 27 heat victims, some of whom may die.
The Davenport Democrat,
July 14, 1936
Just as the Mississippi River is beginning to recede and festivals appear on our riverfront, we suddenly have a new weather focus — summer temperatures. The warmth of July is suddenly here and July warmth will soon melt into the heat of August. As we teeter around
90 degrees, air conditioners are once again running at full force to keep us cool. Imagine for a moment a heat wave with no, or very little, air conditioning. No home air conditioning to help you sleep, no frozen food section to meander through. Sound uncomfortable? Those were the conditions faced by a large portion of the United States in 1936.
That was a year of extremes not only socially and politically, but for weather as well. As the U. S. continued to struggle through the Great Depression, the winter of 1935–36 brought record-breaking, bone chilling cold while the summer saw record-breaking heat strike most of the country. Davenport was no exception. Many of the high-temperature records set that summer still stand. Drought, grasshoppers, floods (in specific areas), and tornadoes also added to the natural disasters of the year.
Drought was beginning to plague this region as temperatures began to rise in late June 1936. Cooler weather returned briefly until
July 5 when the temperature reached 105 degrees. On July 6, it was 105 degrees again and The Davenport Democrat and Leader evening edition reported the first local heat related death, Mr. Leo Brandmeyer, 32, of Rock Island. The overnight temperature dropped to only 81 before soaring again to 105 on July 7. The Davenport Democrat and Leader reported that day the difference in temperature between January 1936 (low temperature of
22 degrees below zero) and July 7, 1936 (105 degrees) was 127 degrees, a new record temperature swing for one year. That record would be surpassed in only days.
Between July 5 and July 15, the temperature remained above 102 degrees during the day with temperatures only dipping into the 80s at night. The highest temperature came on July 14 when the thermometer hit 111 degrees. With no rain in sight, newspapers began to report on crops dying. Adding to the agricultural distress were grasshoppers eating what crops were not withering away in the sun. Only a few hotels and movie theaters had air conditioning. Home cooling systems were still very rare. Families began to live in their basements during the day to keep cool. At night, people slept in parks or on lawns trying to find what little comfort there was in the outdoors. The local papers continued to list those who had either died or collapsed from the heat.
In the midst of the heat wave, life went on. 1936 was the year of Davenport’s centennial. A huge centennial celebration took place, including a centennial parade which drew an estimated 10,000 people on July 14. The Daily Times printed a 144-page special edition on July 11 to celebrate the centennial. One person featured was Henry P. Brown, a Civil War veteran and GAR member who had been appointed in April 1936 as aide-de-camp for the national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. Brown would become a victim of the heat on July 15. On July16, the temperature finally fell under 100 degrees during the day for the first time in 14 days with an evening temperature in the 70s.
July 17 saw another record-breaking day, but by July 20 the heat wave had broken and rain began to cool the area. The evening temperature even reached 67 degrees, the coolest since July 3.
An estimated 89 people died locally during the 1936 heat wave. Nationwide the estimate stands at 5,000 dead. Interestingly, the excessive heat was not located in the southern U.S., but in the northern and Midwestern regions. Warmer weather did return, but in spurts intermixed with cooler temperatures as well.
Even the Mississippi River was hit hard as it dropped to its lowest recorded level in the Quad-City region on Aug. 15, 1936. This surely was a summer to forget, and most definitely not one to repeat.
Amy Driscoll is an archivist with the Davenport Library Richardson-Sloane Special Collections Center, which provides the Primary Selections from Special Collections blog. Read more and comment at qctimes.com/blogs.
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