This is Amy Wagenaar from the Historical Society of Michigan with a Michigan history moment. Even in Michigan, every summer brings a heat wave. Temperatures soar into the 90s and even touch the hundred degree mark. But nothing could top a single week in July 1936 when the temperatures soared. In a record setting heat wave. Michiganders had enjoyed a pleasant Fourth of July in the Southwest states. However, a heat wave was building. Pushed along by a high pressure system on the West Coast. On July 6, North Dakota sweltered in temperatures that hit 121 degrees. In the days before widespread weather forecasting, Michiganders remained blissfully ignorant of the temperatures headed their way. On the morning of July 8, thermometers were already registering in the low 80s. By mid afternoon, the temperatures had topped 104 degrees. An Ann Arbor farmer dropped dead in the heat, as did a Detroit laundry worker and a house painter. By the day's end, the stifling heat had claimed eight lives. The temperature hit 102 degrees the next day and a dozen more Detroiters died. 19 more died the day after that. Meat sales plummeted because no one wanted to cook. Prices soared for lemons used to make lemonade. Water usage jumped, as did beer consumption. Few people had air conditioning in their homes, so they packed into air conditioned movie theaters. Some people sealed up their homes, propped open their refrigerator doors and slept on the kitchen floor. Many others camped outdoors in city parks and sought refuge in lakes, rivers and swimming holes. The heat wave continued for days. Doctors and nurses tended to hundreds of cases of heat related illnesses. Scores of people died in Detroit. The city morgue filled to its 280 person capacity on July 14th. Thermometers in Detroit recorded a high of 104.3 degrees. Then that afternoon, a cold front swept through the Great Lakes region. Rain poured down in torrents and by the next morning the temperature had fallen to 62 degrees, an overnight drop of 42 degrees. For seven days, temperatures in Detroit had averaged almost 102 degrees. The sweltering heat wave had killed 570 people in Michigan and about 5,000 nationwide. The Michiganders who lived through the heat wave of 1936 remembered it for the rest of their lives. The event is also remembered in history books. The little community of Mayo in the Northeast Lower Peninsula set a record temperature for Michigan on July 13, 1936 that has never been broken. 112 degrees. This Michigan history moment was brought to you by michiganhistorymagazine.org.