Heat wave of 1980
The heat wave of 1980 was a significant meteorological event that impacted several states in the United States, particularly affecting areas in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee, and even reaching parts of the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. Beginning in late June, an intense high-pressure system led to prolonged high temperatures and a lack of rainfall, with Dallas/Fort Worth recording temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit for nearly six weeks straight. In Wichita Falls, Texas, the temperatures reached unprecedented levels, including a peak of 117 degrees Fahrenheit, which remains one of the highest recorded temperatures in the region's history.
The heat wave’s effects were far-reaching, contributing to severe drought conditions that severely damaged crops and livestock, resulting in estimated agricultural losses of around twenty billion dollars. Additionally, the heat wave was linked to a deadly derecho that caused further destruction and fatalities across several states. The human toll was particularly alarming, with death estimates ranging from 1,250 to as high as 10,000 individuals. This event highlighted the interplay between extreme weather conditions and their devastating impacts on both the environment and public health, making it a critical study in understanding climate-related phenomena.
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Heat wave of 1980
The Event Severe heat and drought
Date June-September, 1980
Place Southern and southeastern United States
The high temperatures and low rainfall afflicting a large part of the United States in the summer of 1980 cost many human lives and led to enormous agricultural losses.
In late June, 1980, high atmospheric pressure developed over the southern plains, deterring rain and driving seasonably high temperatures significantly higher. On June 23, the temperature in Dallas/Fort Worth reached 104 degrees Fahrenheit, and the temperature reached at least 100 degrees Fahrenheit every day thereafter through August 3. In Wichita Falls, Texas, the high temperature each day from June 24 through July 3 was 110 degrees Fahrenheit or more, with a maximum of 117 degrees Fahrenheit on June 28—the highest temperature ever recorded there. All told, Wichita Falls had highs of 100 degrees Fahrenheit or above for seventy-nine days in 1980.
The heat wave also hit Oklahoma and Kansas. Oklahoma City recorded highs of at least 100 degrees Fahrenheit fifty times that summer and, with an average July temperature of 88.3 degrees Fahrenheit, tied the mark it had set in 1934 for the hottest July in the city’s history. Tulsa had thirty days on which its minimum temperature tied or set a high record, with a low on July 16 of 87 degrees Fahrenheit, the highest minimum ever for the city. Across the Kansas state line, Wichita also had a severe summer, with three highs of 110 degrees Fahrenheit, and a high on July 12 of 112 degrees Fahrenheit.
During July, the unusual heat spread east. The high in Little Rock, Arkansas, in the seven days from July 12 through July 18, was never less than 106 degrees Fahrenheit. In Tennessee, Nashville set a record high for July 16 with a temperature of 104 degrees Fahrenheit. On the Gulf Coast, the temperature in Pensacola, Florida, set record highs for the days from July 7 through July 14, with a reading of 106 degrees Fahrenheit on the 14th. On the Atlantic coast, Charleston, South Carolina, had a high of 100 degrees Fahrenheit on July 13.
Even areas north of those with the highest temperatures fell victim indirectly to the heat wave because of the giant derecho—a cluster of thunderstorms with strong winds—it produced from the night of July 4 well into the afternoon of the next day. This storm cluster moved from southwestern Iowa and northwestern Missouri through several states, until it reached the Virginia and Maryland on the Atlantic coast. In all, it killed six persons and injured sixty-seven others.
Impact
With the drought that accompanied it, the heat wave produced enormous agricultural damage, hurting such crops as corn, soybeans, and cotton and killing or debilitating huge numbers of cattle and chickens. In all, farms, ranches, and related businesses lost twenty billion dollars. The direct human toll, however, was the worst effect. Although determining the number of deaths produced by a heat wave is difficult, estimates for the 1980 heat wave range from 1,250 to 10,000 dead.
Bibliography
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. National Weather Service Web site. http://www .weather.gov.
Stein, Paul. The Macmillan Encyclopedia of Weather. New York: Macmillan Reference, 2001.