Texas Cable News recalls the Dallas heatwave of 1980:
It was 30 years ago this week that a 42-day string of 100 degree days — the longest heat wave by far in the region’s history — was broken. For one day. More triple digits followed, and when autumn mercifully arrived, temperatures had hit the century mark 69 times.
The summer of 2010, though slightly warmer than normal, has yet to set a single record for heat.
By contrast, the summer of 1980 broke or tied 29 daily records, 24 of which stand three decades later. The highest of those highs — the twin 113-degree readings on June 26 and 27, 1980 — are likely to stand for some time yet.
The article goes on to note the outlandish attempts at explanation and remedy:
Some people had theories about what was causing the heat wave. One letter writer to the mayor’s office said the Soviet Union had installed space platforms with lasers beamed at North Texas. Another said the heat was God’s wrath at people who were gambling on the outcome of the television show Dallas’ who-shot-JR episode.
Other people had remedies.
On July 20, people performed a rain dance near the Turtle Creek fountain across from Lee Park in Dallas, asking those who couldn’t attend to “concentrate their thoughts on thundershowers to provide enough energy to manifest a rainfall.”
For the record, it rained the next day — though not enough to break the heat wave.
None of these things fixed the problem, though. “In the end, Earth turning on its axis was enough to do the trick.”
’Twas ever thus.