We're having a heat wave?

[Chez moi]

On this day in 1936, the Dust Bowl heat wave was so intense that Kansas and Nebraska experienced their all-time hottest temperatures, unbroken to this day. In Alton, Kansas, the temperature was 121 degrees, and in Minden, Nebraska, it was 118.

During the summer of 1936, a total of 15 states recorded all-time hottest temperatures that still have not been broken. And not all of the states were in the Dust Bowl region. Earlier in the month, Runyon, New Jersey, was 110, Moorhead, Minnesota, hit 114, and Martinsburg, West Virginia, 112. By early August, Ozark, Arkansas, and Seymour, Texas, had hit 120 degrees.

The term "Dust Bowl" had first been used on April 15, 1935, the day after "Black Sunday," when dust storms were so bad on the Great Plains that the sky was totally black during the day and there were winds up to 60 miles per hour. The term "dust bowl" was coined by Robert Geiger, a reporter and sports fan, and he might have been comparing the bowl-like formation of the Great Plains, ringed by mountains, to the appearance of the arenas for the Rose Bowl or Orange Bowl. He used it offhandedly — two days later, he referred to the same region as "the dust belt." But "dust bowl" stuck.

In The Grapes of Wrath (1939), John Steinbeck wrote: "And then the dispossessed were drawn west — from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out, tractored out. Carloads, caravans, homeless and hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand. They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless — restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do — to lift, to push, to pull, to pick, to cut — anything, any burden to bear, for food. The kids are hungry. We got no place to live. Like ants scurrying for work, for food, and most of all for land."

 

-  Courtesy of The Writer's Almanac

[Bob Stepp]

I am reading "The Grapes of Wrath" now. Just like a few more pages. Possibly the best book I've ever read...given to me by a very special Lady cause she remembered me saying I had never read it.
We really have nothing to complain about compared to what those people went through during that time.

[Ubu]

[P.A.]

The Dust Bowl was primarily caused by poor farming methods used from just after the Civil War until about 1930. Stripping away the native grasses that cover the Great Plains and leaving much of the land open to erosion by wind was the major cause. The lack of ground cover also caused higher temperatures and less rain. The modern climate change deniers should take a look at this event.

[Bob Stepp]

Very true PA....
The modern climate deniers are too interested in profit to see past their nose. Little do they realize what is profitable today could be taken away tomorrow. Truly, the answer is "Blowin' in the Wind."

[darroll]

I’m a math scholar (self appointed).
My body temperature is 98.
The air temperature is 91.
So my temperature is 189 degrees.
This is too damn hot.

[Jaylee53]

Throw a "power surge" in with it and it's all over....:-(

[Chez moi]

:-D Funny math, Darroll.

[Chez moi]

Just sit in the bathtub in cool water until it gets too warm... when it boils, get out.

[Aggie]

Here in this part of Texas we have have the most rain in July since 1900 and the corpse flower is finally blooming. The grass is green and the cows are happy. Wendy, Sandy, Pru and Cowgirl the cows are mowing my yard this weekend.

[Slayer Dug]

Here in "Rawleewood" we're experiencing a cold front. After 4 days in a row of 100+ degree days, we're actually having highs in the low 90's for the majority of this week. Hmmmm.....ice cream time!!!

[d's girl]

Yes, it's next to impossible for us to even imagine the desperation & hardship the people of the Dust Bowl sustained. We are very fortunate.

On a lighter, frivolous note... it's so hot here in Hotlanta that I've actually put the top up on Little White, for the first time b/c it's "too hot." However, here she is in a relatively cool spot of dappled sunlight in the Great Smoky Mountains on a picnic a couple of days ago. She was on vacation.

[Chez moi]

Weren't you sweet to take her on a vacation. Hee hee... she looks happy.