PIECES OF OUR PAST - BACK WHEN IT WAS REALLY HOT!!!!!!

BACK WHEN IT WAS REALLY HOT !!!!

 

   We all know how hot it gets in the summertime.  Many times we feel like the temperature is in excess of one hundred degrees.   The relative humidity of the South causes the air to feel hotter than it actually is.   In the last seventy years,  the official temperature in Dublin has exceeded one hundred degrees the most in the years of 1954, 1977, 1980, and 1981.   Amazingly during the years of 1940, 1947, 1949, 1955, 1960, 1965, 1967, 1973, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1994, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2018, and 2021, the official temperature never made it to the century mark.  The longest streak without a one hundred degree day began on August 31, 1990 and ended on July 10, 1993 for a total of one thousand forty five days - or nearly three years.  During a four year period from June 23, 1964 to July 1, 1968, the temperature reached one hundred degrees only once, on July 13, 1966. I know that there is no consolation if it is 98 or 100 degrees. 

    In light of constant hoopla  that the Earth’s temperature is rising due to global warming, one hundred degree plus temperatures by years  have no definite pattern.  During the 1940s, temperatures reached one hundred or more degrees on thirty days.  The highest temperature of the decade occurred on June 18, 1944 and on August 30, 1948, when the thermometer read 104 degrees. During the 1950s, the second hottest of the last six decades, temperatures reached one hundred or more degrees on 110 days. 

 

   The hottest year of the last ninety eight years was 1954.  During the summer of that year the temperature exceeded one hundred degrees on forty-one days.    Sixteen times the temperature reached an even one hundred degrees.  For seventeen consecutive days from June 22nd to July 8th, the temperature climbed to one hundred degrees or above - an all time recorded temperature record.  The streak started out with a cool morning low of sixty two degrees on June 22nd.   During the next seventeen days,  the mean temperature was eighty seven degrees.  The mercury reached 101 degrees on four days, 102 degrees on six days, 103 degrees on three days, 104 degrees on five days, 105 degrees on one day, 106 degrees on one day, 107 degrees on one day, and 108 degrees on one day.  The hottest day of that year and the second hottest ever recorded was June 28, 1954 when the temperature rose to 108 degrees.  It was the hottest day ever recorded in June.  The third highest temperature of 107 degrees was set the day before on June 27th.   The 22nd of August was the hottest day ever in August when the temperature was measured at 106 degrees.  The temperature went up to 104 degrees in August, but only tied a record set in numerous years.  The all time record high temperature for October of 101 degrees was  set on October 5th.    During that heat wave, the rain gauge collected eight and one quarter inches of rain, which added to the misery of Laurens Countians. Residents who were finally given a break when the temperature failed to reach one hundred degrees during all of 1955 and not again until August 6, 1956.  

    During the 1960s, temperatures fell sharply.   The 1960s, the hottest as far as political turmoil, became the coldest of the previous six decades.    The temperature reached one hundred or more degrees only twenty four times out of nine hundred thirteen summer days.   The record temperature for the decade came on August 25, 1968 when the thermometer read 105 degrees.  During the seventies, the temperatures rose to one hundred or more on forty five days, making it the third coolest decade of the last six.  The hottest year of the 1970s was 1977 with eighteen days with one hundred plus degrees days.   During the middle of July, temperatures were at or near one hundred degrees for seventeen straight days.

 

   The 1980s was the hottest decade of the last six.  On one hundred and fifteen days,  we suffered through temperatures at one hundred degrees or above.  The years of 1980 and 1981 were the hottest back to back years on record.   During 1980, the second hottest year on record, temperatures reached one hundred or more on thirty one days.  The following year, in 1981, one hundred degree plus days numbered twenty four, making it the third hottest year.  The all time record of one hundred nine degrees was set on July 14, 1980.  That was in the shade, of course.  Some back porch or back yard thermometers showed temperatures as high as one hundred and fourteen degrees. 

    During a three week period beginning on July 2nd , temperatures reached ninety nine degrees or more on twenty of twenty one days.  The mercury reached one hundred on nine consecutive days, the third longest streak, beginning on July 10th, 1981.  For two weeks, temperatures were at or above one hundred degrees.  After a brief respite, one hundred plus degree temperatures returned for eleven straight days beginning on July 31st - the second longest streak of recorded 100+ temperatures. 

    The 1990s, so far, have been the third hottest of the last six decades.  Although temperatures have reached one hundred degrees on seventy days, the nineties have been much cooler than the 1950s or 1980s.  To date the highest recorded temperature of the 90s was one hundred and six degrees on July 1, 1998.

 

   During the 2000s, the century mark was felt 37 times (11 times in 2000)   In the second decade of the 21st Century, that mark was slightly less with 32 100-plus hot days.  So far since 2020, we have officially felt only seven, more than 100 air degree, days as of the date of this article.  This hottest year of this century was 2011 with temps soaring above 100 degrees 10 times.  The hottest three-day baking came from June 29 to July 1, 2011 with an average of 106.2 degrees. 

    Relatively speaking, it can get hot on other days beside the usual summer ones.  There was no chance of a “White Christmas” in 1964,  when we played with our new toys in eighty degree temperatures.  Since 1940, temperatures on New Year’s Day have reached seventy nine degrees three times; in 1952, 1974, and 1985.   July the Fourth is thought by some to be the hottest day of the year.  In the last sixty years, the temperature has reached one hundred degrees on the holiday only twice, in 1948 and 1979.   The temperature has never officially reached one hundred on July 27th since complete records began in 1940.   Of the hottest seventy eight days of the last sixty years, the hottest come in the last six days of June (remember the end of June of last year) and the last ten days of August, just in time for pre-season football practice.  The highest recorded January temperature reached eighty three degrees on January 12, 1949.  The highest recorded February temperature reached eighty five degrees on Feb. 17, 1989.  The highest recorded March temperature was ninety two degrees on March 11, 1974.  The highest recorded April temperature stands at ninety eight degrees - set on April 28, 1986.  The earliest date on which the thermometer reached one hundred degrees was on May 23, 1941.  A week later, the all time record for May was established at one hundred and one degrees.  The hottest November day was November 3, 1961 when the temperature hit ninety degrees.  The hottest December day ever recorded was on December 5th, 1978 when the mercury reached 84 degrees.   

  

 In conclusion, the four hottest days in our recorded history were June 28, 1954 (108,) July 14, 1980, (109,) August 11, 2007 (109,) and September 4, 1925 (108.)  

 

    The next time you “feel like you are going to melt,” or your electricity bill is measured in  several hundreds of dollars, remember these days when it was truly, Hot! Hot! Hot!  After all, you could have been in Louisville, Georgia on July 24, 1952 when the temperature reportedly (105 here in Dublin) reached a scalding one hundred and twelve degrees. Whew!