While this summer has been hot and humid, it pales in comparison to the hottest month in Illinois history – July 1936. Here are the records from July of that year at Midway Airport in Chicago. The temperature hit the triple digit mark nine times that month. That’s more times than for the entire 1954 to present-day period at Midway Airport. Also, eight of those nine days in July were consecutive.
It was also very dry with only 0.31 inches of precipitation that month. A “T” in the precipitation column means the a trace event – enough to wet the sidewalk but not enough to measure.
The second table has the reports from the University of Chicago site. Those numbers show that conditions closer to the lake were a little more tolerable that summer but still very warm. And this was all before air conditioning was in widespread use.
| (111577) CHICAGO MIDWAY AP_IL |
| Date | Precip (in) |
MaxT (F) |
MinT (F) |
| 1936-07-01 | 0.00 | 86 | 55 |
| 1936-07-02 | 0.00 | 79 | 63 |
| 1936-07-03 | 0.00 | 86 | 60 |
| 1936-07-04 | T | 91 | 64 |
| 1936-07-05 | T | 82 | 68 |
| 1936-07-06 | 0.00 | 92 | 68 |
| 1936-07-07 | 0.00 | 102 | 70 |
| 1936-07-08 | 0.00 | 106 | 73 |
| 1936-07-09 | 0.06 | 100 | 71 |
| 1936-07-10 | 0.00 | 106 | 77 |
| 1936-07-11 | T | 107 | 76 |
| 1936-07-12 | 0.00 | 100 | 76 |
| 1936-07-13 | 0.00 | 102 | 73 |
| 1936-07-14 | 0.00 | 104 | 69 |
| 1936-07-15 | 0.00 | 91 | 74 |
| 1936-07-16 | 0.00 | 91 | 72 |
| 1936-07-17 | 0.00 | 93 | 66 |
| 1936-07-18 | 0.14 | 86 | 70 |
| 1936-07-19 | 0.05 | 80 | 62 |
| 1936-07-20 | 0.00 | 80 | 57 |
| 1936-07-21 | 0.00 | 88 | 60 |
| 1936-07-22 | 0.00 | 95 | 59 |
| 1936-07-23 | 0.06 | 99 | 69 |
| 1936-07-24 | T | 78 | 66 |
| 1936-07-25 | T | 94 | 64 |
| 1936-07-26 | T | 102 | 71 |
| 1936-07-27 | T | 85 | 67 |
| 1936-07-28 | 0.00 | 98 | 60 |
| 1936-07-29 | 0.00 | 74 | 65 |
| 1936-07-30 | 0.00 | 78 | 51 |
| 1936-07-31 | 0.00 | 83 | 50 |
| Sum: | 0.31 | 2838 | 2046 |
| Count: | 31 | 31 | 31 |
| Average: | 0.01 | 91.5 | 66.0 |
| M = Missing, T = trace | |||
| (111572) UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO |
| Date | Precip (in) |
MaxT (F) |
MinT (F) |
| 1936-07-01 | 0.00 | 82 | 58 |
| 1936-07-02 | 0.00 | 72 | 63 |
| 1936-07-03 | T | 81 | 61 |
| 1936-07-04 | T | 82 | 64 |
| 1936-07-05 | 0.01 | 74 | 66 |
| 1936-07-06 | 0.00 | 84 | 67 |
| 1936-07-07 | 0.00 | 95 | 72 |
| 1936-07-08 | 0.00 | 95 | 76 |
| 1936-07-09 | 0.03 | 95 | 74 |
| 1936-07-10 | 0.00 | 102 | 80 |
| 1936-07-11 | 0.00 | 97 | 80 |
| 1936-07-12 | 0.00 | 89 | 76 |
| 1936-07-13 | 0.00 | 91 | 76 |
| 1936-07-14 | 0.00 | 96 | 75 |
| 1936-07-15 | 0.00 | 86 | 74 |
| 1936-07-16 | 0.00 | 82 | 73 |
| 1936-07-17 | 0.00 | 84 | 70 |
| 1936-07-18 | 0.10 | 81 | 71 |
| 1936-07-19 | T | 75 | 70 |
| 1936-07-20 | 0.00 | 76 | 67 |
| 1936-07-21 | 0.00 | 79 | 66 |
| 1936-07-22 | 0.00 | 89 | 66 |
| 1936-07-23 | 0.05 | 95 | 70 |
| 1936-07-24 | T | 72 | 68 |
| 1936-07-25 | 0.00 | 83 | 66 |
| 1936-07-26 | T | 90 | 71 |
| 1936-07-27 | 0.03 | 86 | 68 |
| 1936-07-28 | 0.00 | 87 | 65 |
| 1936-07-29 | 0.00 | 73 | 65 |
| 1936-07-30 | 0.00 | 74 | 64 |
| 1936-07-31 | 0.00 | 78 | 58 |
| Sum: | 0.22 | 2625 | 2140 |
| Count: | 31 | 31 | 31 |
| Average: | 0.01 | 84.7 | 69.0 |
| M = Missing, T = trace | |||