How hot is it? Hot, but the summertime of 1980 desires a word

It's plenty hot this summer season, but is it as hot as it was a little over 40 years back?

The year 1980 basically says, "Hold my beer, 2023." That year, from June 23 to Aug. 3, it was at least 100 degrees or hotter. Twenty-nine heat records were broken that year. July was a rough month of 100 degree temperatures all month long. The hottest temperature level on record, 113, was reached on 2 days in 1980.

Up until now this year, 109 is the most popular we've reached. It is possible that the area might set records for the number of days where the low temperature level is 80 degrees or higher and for the number of days at or above 105 degrees, according to the National Weather Service in Fort Worth.

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Ernie Taft, the kid of longtime (1941-1991) KXAS weatherman Harold Taft, remembers the summertime of 1980. He had just started a job with the Dallas Emergency Preparedness services. It was hot, he remembered, but the world is a little bit of a different place. The population of Fort Worth in 1980 was 385,000 and some change, compared to 2023's 964,000 locals.

" Not everyone had air conditioning then," he said. "A lot of houses might have one window system and in some cases they might have just had a fan, if that," he stated.

The Red Cross and other firms used air conditioners and fans, and his workplace opened cooling centers, he said.

He wasn't truly sure if it was an unusual summer at the time, as he was brand-new to the task, he said.

Just a few years later on, in the mid-1990s, he would be dealing with record cold and ice.

" It's Texas," he said.

Taft did recall getting calls from media around the country as the heat wave droned on, day after day.

" I knew it was a huge offer when I got a phone call from an Australian television station inquiring about the weather condition," he stated. "We were big news. Or maybe it was a sluggish news day there."

Taft, who is now retired and lives in Arlington, recalled that his daddy, who cut his teeth in the Army Air Corps as a weatherman throughout World War II and the Korean dispute, did as he constantly did. He merely reported on the weather condition.

" Dad said he did the very same thing on TV that he did giving a weather briefing to pilots going to fly. Just provide the truths," he said.

Taft said the weather devices and the studio devices in 1980 was primitive by today's requirements.

" They didn't have all the fancy stuff they have now," he stated. "I think Dad was still hand drawing weather maps then. They didn't bring weather condition individuals on day and night like they do now. That stuff had not started yet."

Video video from KXAS-TV (Television station: Fort Worth, Tex.) from June 24, 1980, 5:00 p.m. (Courtesy video|The Portal to Texas History, University of North Texas).

David Finfrock, now senior meteorologist at NBC 5, keeps in mind the summer season of 1980 strongly. He had started at the station in 1975.

" The very first live shot I ever did was from the Handley Power Plant in east Fort Worth the afternoon it struck 113," he said.

That day was Thursday, June 26, 1980. It struck 113 the next day, too.

" I didn't believe we would ever eclipse the 69 days that reached 100 in 1980," he stated. David Finfrock of then-KXAS in Fort Worth in 1980. The Portal of Texas History, University of North Texas).
Fort Worth wasn't strike the worst with the heat. That would be Wichita Falls, where temperature levels strike 117 degrees around the very same period.

Those North Texas records are likely to stand, a minimum of for at least another year, according to John Nielsen-Gammon, regents professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University in College Station.

" This year, the heat dome was weaker and farther south than in 1980, enabling rainfall and cooler temperature levels that sometimes extend southward into North Texas," he said. "In 1980, whatever was deflected well to the north.".

The weather condition this summertime is having an impact on health. In August, MedStar ambulance teams dealt with 348 clients for a heat-related disease, compared to 129 patients in August of 2022, a 270% boost. In August 2022, it had to do with equally split in between females and males being treated for heat-related diseases, however this August the men surpassed the females, 244 to 104.

Given that May 1, MedStar crews have actually dealt with 807 patients with a main medical impression of a heat-related health problem. The ambulance service has actually carried 605 to location health centers, 55 in vital or severe condition. Nine patients were 10 or younger, and 142 have actually been 65 years of ages or older.

As an indication of intensity of the heat actions, 82% of those clients were carried to location medical facilities in August of this year, compared to 62% in 2022.

There is some great news, Medstar reported. The number of kids dealt with following being found in a hot vehicle in August 2023 was just one, compared to three in August 2022.

In the summer season of 1980, a minimum of 60 individuals succumbed to the heat, according to a report from the Texas Department of Water Resources.

Texas and heat go back to the beginnings of the state. In the world of music, a tune called, "The Devil Made Texas," recounts how the devil made the state so poisonous that he prefers hell..

Gen. Philip Sheridan, who was stationed in Fort Clark in 1866, allegedly stated, "If I owned Texas and Hell, I would lease Texas and reside in Hell.".

Do you have something for the Bob on Business column? Email Bob Francis as bob.francis@fortworthreport.org.

Bob Francis is organization editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at bob.francis@fortworthreport.org.

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by Bob Francis, Fort Worth Report.
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