The great heat and drought of summer 1988 still stands as the most costlynatural disaster in the history of the United States, Hurricane Katrina andother deadly storms notwithstanding.Following earlier "warning shots," passing blasts of heat during June, severeheat locked in from the intermountain West to the Eastern Seaboard during thefirst half of July.
The culmination of this severe heat came at the middle of the month, when highstopped the 100-degree mark in many cities of the Midwest to the mid-Atlantic.
Pittsburgh tied its highest ever temperature, 103 F, on July 16. Also on thisdate, Cleveland, having set an all-time high of 104 F in late June, notchedanother rare 100-degree high.
In leaving its mark upon the record books, the heat of 1988 vied with suchinfamous hot years as 1936 and 1934.
By the time the summer's heat and drought were broken, billions of dollarsworth of crops were wiped out, municipal water supplies were sapped andYellowstone National Park was blackened by vast firestorms.
Damage was estimated at $107 billion in terms of 2009 dollars. The deathtoll was bracketed at between 4,800 and 17,000, although the true toll isinherently unknowable.
Story by AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist Jim Andrews
