On July 14, 1954, temperatures in St. Louis soared to where they had never been before - hitting a high of 115 degrees - a record that has never been approached since.
By 6 a.m. the next day, brisk winds from Canada had dropped the temperature to 76 degrees. By that time, the weeklong heat wave had already taken 104 lives in the city.
July 14 was also a milestone day for other St. Louis heat waves.
1936:Â On July 14, the temperature hit a summer peak of 108, the 10th highest day in St. Louis history. The heat of July 1936 had been withering and deadly. It had killed 332 people by July 30, when cooling breezes soothed raw, sweating faces.Â
1980:Â With 24 heatstroke deaths in St. Louis in a 24-hour period, Governor Joe Teasdale ordered a state of emergency on July 14. Temperatures on July 8 hit 101 and would break 100 degrees on a withering nine of the next 14 days and reach 107 on July 15, the summer's worst. It would be 100 or hotter on 18 days that long, searing summer.Â
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2012:Â By July 14, forecast temperatures were forecast for "only" 97 degrees. Just a week earlier, the city had endured a 10-day run of triple-digit temperatures.
For the record: the 10 hottest days in St. Louis history:
- July 14, 1954: 115 degrees.
- July 18, 1954: 112 degrees.
- July 24, 1934: 111 degrees.
- July 12, 1954: 110 degrees.
- August 9, 1934: 110 degrees.
- July 20, 1934: 110 degrees.
- July 22, 2017: 108 degrees.
- July 25, 2012: 108 degrees.
- June 28, 2012: 108 degrees.
- July 14, 1936: 108 degrees.
Looking back: St. Louis and its July heat waves
July heat in St. Louis
100-degree temperatures are nothing new for St. Louis in July. Here is a photographic look back at four of the hottest summers in the city.
1936: The heat of July 1936 had been withering and deadly, reaching at least 100 degrees on 18 days. It had killed 332 people by July 30, when cooling breezes soothed raw, sweating faces.Â
1954:Â The summer saw temperatures climb to 115 degrees in St. Louis. A week-long heat wave beginning July 14 took 104 lives.Â
1980: Temperatures on July 8 hit 101 and would break 100 degrees on a withering nine of the next 14 days and reach 107 on July 15, the summer's worst. Â
2012:Â On July 8, temperatures drop to only 98 degrees, ending a 10-day run of triple-digit temperatures.
Look Back: Heat wave of 1936
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)
Look Back: Heat wave of 1936
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)
Look Back: Heat wave of 1936
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)
Look Back: Heat wave of 1936
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)
Look Back: Heat wave of 1936
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)
Look Back: Heat wave of 1936
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)
Look Back: Heat wave of 1936
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)
Look Back: Heat wave of 1954
July 14,1954-- Sallie Bacon (left) and Christine Meyer, employees of the main library downtown, cool their feet in the fountain on the shady side of the library, at 1301 Olive Street, on July 14, 1954. Relief was relative -- the high that afternoon was 115 degrees. Post-Dispatch photo
Look Back: Heat wave of 1954
FILE JULY 12, 1954- Thousands fled sweltering homes to try to sleep in parks. Mr. and Mrs. Pleasant Earls and daughters, Shirley, 11 and Linda, 6, rest in Forest Park on July 12, 1954, when the temperature didn’t fall below 100 until 9 p.m. They were from Hawk Avenue, just east of the park. Floyd Bowser/Post-Dispatch
Look Back: Heat wave of 1954
July 14,1954--A massive buckling of College Avenue and Emily Street, caused by heat, draws the sweating curious on July 14. Post-Dispatch photo
Look Back: Heat wave of 1954
July 13,1954--Children at the John J. Cochran public housing north of downtown happily jostle for relief from the spray of a fire hose on July 13, 1954. It did beat the heat, as long as the water was on. Post-Dispatch photo
Look Back: Heat wave of 1954
1954: Here's an idea: beat The Muny heat by pouring a thin film of water over the concrete slabs under the seats. This turns out not to work as well as everyone had hoped, as the combination of water and St. Louis summers can make things steamy. Still, while the water runs the performers enjoyed it. Lunch hour brings a break from the heat to singers Barbara Craven (top), Sara Smith (seated below Craven), Kaye Geith (left, second row), Harlene Pomroy (right, second row) and Carolyn Hill (first row). Post-Dispatch photo
Look Back: Heat wave of 1980
A patient at City Hospital watches an Army Reserve soldier assemble flexible ducts to bring cool air inside on July 11, 1980. (J.B. Forbes/Post-Dispatch)
Look Back: Heat wave of 1980
St. Louis firefighter Steve Singler douses himself with a helmet full of water at a fire in the 5400 block of Page Boulevard on July 7, 1980. The high that day was 99, but would reach 101 the next day and hit triple digits for eight of the next 12 days. (Karen Elshout/Post-Dispatch)
Look Back: Heat wave of 1980
Boys try to enjoy the cool draft from water running beneath them in a stormwater drain near Ninth and O'Fallon streets, on the north edge of downtown, on July 7, 1980, when the temperature was 99. The manhole cover had been removed, allowing for their imprudent tactic. (Sam Leone/Post-Dispatch)
Look Back: Heat wave of 1980
Carolyn Wamhoff (left) treats her daughters and their friends to ice cream in south St. Louis on July 8, 1980. They are, from left, Fabrice Cara, Jean Wamhoff, Bob Powers, Carla Kraft and Donna Wamhoff. The vast trunk of the well-preserved 1963 Chevrolet provided plenty of hot sitting room. (J.B. Forbes/Post-Dispatch)
Look Back: Heat wave of 1980
Effie Loggin, a patient at St. Louis City Hospital at 1515 Lafayette Avenue, sweats through the day's heat on July 9, 1980, when the high was 102 degrees. The hospital's general wards did not have air-conditioning. There was a smaller air-conditioned room for patients suffering from heat-related illnesses. (Karen Elshout/Post-Dispatch)
Look Back: Heat wave of 1980
A motorist on July 14, 1980, drives around a buckled section pavement on Theresa Avenue near Locust Street, west of downtown. It was one of several breaks in area streets caused by expansion from the relentless pounding of heat. (Sam Leone/Post-Dispatch)
Look Back: Heat wave of 1980
Sixty-three tons of ice melts on the parking lot of South County Center during a contest to guess when it would all disappear. The shopping center had the ice hauled there on July 11, 1980, and ask patrons to fill out cards predicting when it would melt away. Raymond Kalbac, of 5745 Mango Drive in Mehlville, won a deep freezer by guessing the time within nine seconds. He had guessed the melting could be complete by 6:09:30 a.m. Monday, July 14. It made him an easy winner. (J.B. Forbes/Post-Dispatch)
Look Back: Heat wave of 1980
Eric Felder, 10, plays in a fountain on North Main Street in St. Charles on July 17, 1980, when the temperature reached 97. It returned to triple digits two days later, and the highs stayed in the 90s until a thunderstorm finally hit town on July 21. (Wayne Crosslin/Post-Dispatch)
Look Back: Heat wave of 1980
Karen Miller (left) and Liz Bohn take the kids to Ted Drewes Frozen Custard at 4224 South Grand Boulevard on Aug. 30, 1980, when the temperature hit 102. There had been brief relief after a rainstorm on July 21. The high was only 77 degrees on July 27, but heat soon returned. Six of the first 10 days in August would record temperatures of at least 100 degrees. (Karen Elshout/Post-Dispatch)
Look Back: Heat wave of 2012
As overcast skies move in, Eric Vandeven and his son Braxton,10, enjoy the relatively cooler temperatures in their backyard pool Sunday, July 8,2012, in Imperial. "The temperature just dropped, not by much, but you can feel it. It sure looks like it will rain," said Vandeven. "My backyard grass could sure use it," he added. A high of only 98 degrees ended the historic 100-degree temperature streak . Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com
Look Back: Heat wave of 2012
Alan Cowley of the St. Louis welcomes in the cool air before stormy weather hits Forest Park Sunday evening, July 8,2012. "What's it's been 10 or 11 days above 100 degrees? Finally, cool air !" said Cowley, who waited to walk home in the rain and cooler weather. A high of only 98 degrees ended the historic 100-degree temperature streak. Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com
Look Back: Heat wave of 2012
Twin sisters Elizabeth (left) and Allison Spring play in the rain at Ted Drewes Frozen Custard on South Grand Boulevard in July 2012 in St. Louis.Â
Look Back: Heat wave of 2012
Makayla Brown, 7, a third grader at Oak Hill Elementary, cools off outside her grandmother's home on Chippewa Street Tuesday July 17, 2012. Demetria Brown, Makayla's grandmother, has been without air conditioning since last Friday, when her central unit stopped working. After being turned down for help by area social service agencies, Brown found an air conditioning repairman who would take payments in installments. Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Look Back: Heat wave of 2012
Fair St. Louis air show enthusiasts huddled under the shadow of the Gateway Arch on Wednesday July 4, 2012. With temperatures continuing in the triple digits, the moving shadow offered a respite to searing summer heat. Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
