MPR’s Mark Steil looks back to the month of July in 1936, when Minnesota suffered through an oppressive heat wave. Steil interviews residents in southern Minnesota that endured the extreme temperatures.
The 1936 Heat Wave was the hottest July ever recorded in the Twin Cities and across Minnesota. A southwesterly flow of hot, dry winds set up the prolonged and record-shattering heat event. Examples of the extremes included a 108-degree high in the Twin Cities on the July 14th, and the 14 days above 100 degrees in Worthington. During a particularly intense period of heat wave between July 10-14th, around 900 Minnesotans perished.
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MARK STEIL: The heat wave was almost unbelievable to those living through it. And even today, it remains almost incomprehensible. Near its beginning, the Worthington Globe noted that temperatures over 100 degrees were rare in the area.
In fact, in the decade before 1936, only a half dozen days over 100 had been recorded. Worthington passed that mark before half of July 1936 was over.
KIERAN WHELAN: Well, if you've never been in 110 degree heat in about 99% humidity, you don't know what heat is.
MARK STEIL: Kieran Whelan, now of Worthington, operated a combination cafe, gas station, and grocery store in 1936, in the small town of Reading, about seven miles Northwest of Worthington. He clearly remembers, to the minute, the start of the heat wave. It was a relatively cool 4th of July morning when a customer arrived at about 11:30.
KIERAN WHELAN: A man came in from Laverne and was telling about all the heat there was, and it was unbelievable, his story. He had been drinking a little, so we wasn't too sure about anything he was saying.
Well, about 10 minutes to 12:00, I had the west window s and all of a sudden a great wave of heat came in. And I thought maybe there was a fire out there. And I looked out, there wasn't anything. And I turned around and said to him, is this what you were talking about? And he came over there. And he said, sure. He said, that's what I've been telling you, he said.
That's the way it was, he said, until I got to Rushmore. And when I got to Rushmore, it was cool, it was here when I came.
MARK STEIL: On the 4th of July, the temperature reached 107 degrees in Worthington. The next day, again, topped at 107, followed by 102 on the sixth. The next two days reached 98 degrees, then it was over the 100 degree mark for nine consecutive days, capped by 110 degrees on the 17th.
For the month, there were 14 days over 100 degrees, 11 days in the 90s, six days in the 80s. The average daytime high for the month in Worthington was almost 97 degrees.
GEORGE WICK: That summer is really impressed on my mind, because I never was so hot in my life as I was the summer I put in the dry cleaning shop.
MARK STEIL: George Wick lives in Sibley, Iowa about 20 miles south of Worthington, he had one of the least enviable jobs anywhere that hot summer of 1936. He worked on a steam press.
GEORGE WICK: Pressing breeches and coats and dresses and stuff on that. Sweat just running out of me everywhere. We had a cooler of water to drink. And the faster I sweat, the more water I drank. And the more water I drank, the faster I sweat.
MARK STEIL: For some, the heat was life threatening. Kieran Whelan remembers an elderly couple returning from a Northern Minnesota trip, who stopped at his home on July 5, when the temperature reached 107 degrees.
KIERAN WHELAN: They came in about 4:00 that afternoon. And they were basically overcome with the heat. And we got them out of the car and in the shade. My mother got some cold water from the well. And after an hour or so, they finally was well enough that they could continue home. They only lived about four or five miles from Reading.
MARK STEIL: For farmers, that hot summer continued a string of drought plagued years in the '30s. Some crops were a total loss in 1936.
By August, temperatures returned to a more normal range. And the worst of the heat was over. But while the heat proved temporary, the memories it left were forever.
KIERAN WHELAN: Oh, my. Yes, it was the hottest summer that I can remember.
MARK STEIL: Kieran Whelan-- some people slept in their basements or even outside during the heat wave, but Whelan says, for most it was a matter of accepting the heat because, he says, there really was no escaping the hot temperatures.
This is Mark Steil in Worthington.