http://stltoday.mycapture.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=1298131&CategoryID=23105 Fri, 05 Aug 2011 00:00 CST en-us http://stltoday.mycapture.com/mycapture/enlarge.asp?image=37097831&event=1298131&CategoryID=23105 Fri, 05 Aug 2011 13:07 CST
A family from St. Louis spends a night in rural St. Louis County in July 1936, during a scorching and deadly summer that logged a record 37 days of high temperatures of at least 100. A first wave of heat broke on July 30, but the temperature climbed back to 100 on Aug. 9 and was that hot or worse for another two weeks. Thousands of people fled their stifling brick homes and flats and slept for weeks on the grass in city parks and along quiet country roads. This family tried to find some refuge near Lindbergh Road. The heat of 1936 killed 479 people in the St. Louis area, including 29 children. (Post-Dispatch) ]]> http://stltoday.mycapture.com/mycapture/enlarge.asp?image=37097836&event=1298131&CategoryID=23105 Fri, 05 Aug 2011 13:07 CST
Children gather at the intersection of Keokuk Street and Michigan Avenue, one block north of Marquette Park, where heat buckled the brick pavement in July 1936. Relentless pounding of the sun caused similar damage throughout the St. Louis area. (Post-Dispatch) ]]> http://stltoday.mycapture.com/mycapture/enlarge.asp?image=37097837&event=1298131&CategoryID=23105 Fri, 05 Aug 2011 13:07 CST
Mrs. W.E. Johnson works her shriveled potato patch on the family farm north of Columbia, Mo., in July 1936. Only one-fourth of normal rainfall fell that summer, ruining crops and pastures. The heat wave accompanied a drought that covered much of the Midwest and Plains until scattered rainfall finally broke through on Aug. 28. (Post-Dispatch) ]]> http://stltoday.mycapture.com/mycapture/enlarge.asp?image=37097841&event=1298131&CategoryID=23105 Fri, 05 Aug 2011 13:07 CST
The bare remains of a pasture on the Johnson farm near Columbia in summer 1936. (Post-Dispatch) ]]> http://stltoday.mycapture.com/mycapture/enlarge.asp?image=37097842&event=1298131&CategoryID=23105 Fri, 05 Aug 2011 13:07 CST
Underfed milk cows linger about a muddy hole that had been a pond on the farm of Ben Buhmeyer near High Hill, Mo., in summer 1936. (Post-Dispatch) ]]> http://stltoday.mycapture.com/mycapture/enlarge.asp?image=37097844&event=1298131&CategoryID=23105 Fri, 05 Aug 2011 13:07 CST
Mrs. J.S. Sampo of Howard County, Mo., feeds five-day-old orphaned piglets during the heat and drought of summer 1936. The sow that bore them had died of the heat. Mrs. Sampo's family usually fed the piglets with milk, but had to sell their dairy cows because of the drought. Mrs. Sampo feeds the piglets bread soaked in water. Helping her are two of her grandchildren. (Post-Dispatch) ]]> http://stltoday.mycapture.com/mycapture/enlarge.asp?image=37097845&event=1298131&CategoryID=23105 Fri, 05 Aug 2011 13:07 CST
A Mississippi River ferry is stranded on the St. Louis levee south of the Eads Bridge in July 1936. The river stayed below "0" on the downtown gauge for weeks that summer. (Post-Dispatch) ]]> http://stltoday.mycapture.com/mycapture/enlarge.asp?image=37097847&event=1298131&CategoryID=23105 Fri, 05 Aug 2011 13:07 CST
H.J. Beer of Columbia, Mo., fills a tank with water from the city water works for a farmer from nearby Hinton in summer 1936. In St. Louis County, farmers paid 44 cents per 1,000 gallons to keep their animals alive. (Post-Dispatch) ]]> http://stltoday.mycapture.com/mycapture/enlarge.asp?image=37097848&event=1298131&CategoryID=23105 Fri, 05 Aug 2011 13:07 CST
A teamster gives his horse a drink from a bucket on a St. Louis street in summer 1936, The Humane Society of Missouri gave buckets to service stations so horses could quench their thirst during the pounding heat. (Post-Dispatch) ]]> http://stltoday.mycapture.com/mycapture/enlarge.asp?image=37097849&event=1298131&CategoryID=23105 Fri, 05 Aug 2011 13:07 CST
A farm hand plows the burned-up field of Mrs. Albert Rauscher on Conway Road, west of Mason Road, on Aug. 13, 1936, when the high temperature was 103 degrees. The temperature would be at least 100 on 13 of the next 15 days, and reach 106 degrees Aug. 18. The high that summer was 108 on July 14 during the first wave of the summer's deadly heat. The Rauscher farm was in today's Town and Country. (Post-Dispatch) ]]>