Postcard image via Flickr user Rob
On Thursday, July 13, 1995, a
concentration of high pressure in the upper atmosphere above Midwest
Chicago forced massive amounts of hot air to the ground, causing
temperatures as high as 41°C (106°F). In a Midwestern city not built for
tropical heat, roads buckled, cars broke down in the street, and
schools closed their doors. On Friday, three Con Ed power transformers
failed, leaving 49,000 people without electricity. In high-rise
apartments with no air conditioning, temperatures hit 49°C (120°F) even
with the windows open. The heat continued into Saturday. The human body
can only take about 48 hours of uninterrupted heat like this before its
defenses begin to shut down, and emergency rooms were so crowded they
had to turn away heatstroke victims. Sunday was no better, and as the
death toll rose—of dehydration, heat exhaustion, and renal failure—the
morgues hit capacity, too, and bodies were stored in refrigerated
meat-packing trucks. In all, 739 people died as a result of the heat
wave.