![]() Video: "Where's the Beef" 1936 - WHERE'S THE CARBON? We need something better than we're getting! What we're getting is a snow job - literally. What we've seen this so-called spring are cold hard facts on the frozen ground. Below is a reproduction of somebody else's hard work and it should help us decide for ourselves whether or not we're being had on the carbon tax issue. Because "those who don't know history ..." and especially if you don't know the rest of that maxim. "40 in the shade" is 104F folks, for those who still don't speak metric (I had to look it up myself). And this occurred in 1936 in Toronto at a time when there were few cars on the road, most people heated with coal or wood, electricity had just barely got to urban homes, very few electrical appliances existed -- we were still using ice boxes during the 1940's, and horse-drawn milk and bread wagons! -- and "carbon" was called by its real name: "carbon dioxide or CO2" (so not to be confused with black, sooty stuff) and it was -- and still is -- vital to our very existence. 40 in the shade: Toronto’s worst heatwave July 9, 2016 | By Chris Bateman, SpacingToronto With temperatures in the low 40s and no mechanical means to cool themselves, the people of Toronto flocked to the waterfront. Toronto Daily Star, July 9, 1936. For an excruciating week in July, 1936, Toronto, the province, and much of Canada burned. An unprecedented and deadly continent-wide heatwave forced temperatures into the low- to mid-40s, killing hundreds, incinerating food crops, and forcing many more from their homes to sleep in parks, beaches, and cars. The temperatures seen on July 7, 8, and 9 are still the hottest ever recorded in Toronto. The blast of searing weather also set records for Manitoba and Ontario that still stand today. The heat was so severe apples cooked on trees, crops died, houses burned, and bridges and roads buckled and warped. The heatwave that hit Toronto swept in from the west. In Emerson, Manitoba, the temperature spiked at 45 Celsius—the second hottest temperature recorded in Canada to date. Toronto Daily Star, July 7, 1936. The first signs of trouble came with the morning paper on July 7. A scorching heat that had menaced the Prairies and Northwestern U.S. was now sweeping east, forecasted said, with temperatures expected to linger in the low- to mid-30s in Ontario. The situation in Ontario was already strained. Starved of rain for weeks, farmers in Western Ontario complained of dry wells and local creeks reduced to a languid trickle. The area from Hamilton to Niagara and Lake Erie was a “parched waste,” according to the Toronto Daily Star, with grain crops wilting and fruits and vegetables spoiling on the vine. “The soil is bone dry and ground plants are sure goners unless we get some rain soon,” said Thomas Richardson, a fruit farmer in Normanhurst, Ontario. “The creeks are dried up, and many farmers here are hauling water from the nearest town.” Temperatures on July 7 topped out at an uncomfortable 31 Celsius, but much worse was to come. The temperature in Toronto surpassed 40 Celsius three days in a row on July 8, 9, and 10. The Globe, July 11, 1936. “The official temperature at 1:30 o’clock was 95 Fahrenheit [35 C] and is reported going higher,” the Star told its readers on July 8. In the sun, meteorologists recorded the temperature at 60 C, but that didn’t stop people crowding streetcars and ferries to the beach. Sunnyside, Balmy Beach, and the Toronto Island all recorded record visitor numbers, while drivers lined Fleet Street hoping to fill the cabins of their vehicles with a whisper of lake breeze. Over in Riverdale Park, the keepers gave the zoo animals extra water and tried to offer shade. However, there was no ice bath for the polar bears. “Ice isn’t put in the pool for the polar bears, because once wen this was tried in American zoo, the bears died,” a zoo official explained. The city water supply was hit hard early on. Parched citizens chugged 104 million gallons from the tap and sprayed what was left onto their lawns that day—close to a record amount. Though the Hospital for Sick Children reported no heat-related admissions, the effects of the weather began to manifest in people’s frayed tempers and angry outbursts. “The nervous strain and irritation caused by the heat would make noises seem more annoying than usual,” said University of Toronto Professor G. R. Anderson reliably informed the readers of the Star. During the afternoon, the temperature hit 40 C—a new record. Some businesses had air conditioning in 1936, but the feature hadn’t yet arrived in homes. Cold pans of water were one of the only effective ways of cooling down. Toronto Daily Star, July 9, 1936. Forecasters interviewed by the Globe and Star predicted the temperature would plateau, and they were right. On July 9 the official thermometers again read 40C in the shade. In the sun, meteorologists recorded a mind-boggling 70 C. “Weary to a point of exhaustion, men, women, children and animals sought refuge from scorching rooms and flocked in tens of thousands to the waterfront,” the Star reported. “They found little comfort there. The lake was like a mill pond. What slight breeze there was struck the face like a blast from a furnace.” Without home air conditioning or any real way to cool down, people began to expire in increasing numbers. In Caledon, a 61-year-old man died while haying on a farm. Two drownings were reported—one in Hamilton, the other in Welland—as people headed to the water. James Gibbs, the Hamilton victim, leapt into the water though “he couldn’t swim a stroke,” according to his wife. Fruits and berries cooked on plants across the city and people fried eggs on the searing sidewalk. At Sunnyside, a peanut and popcorn salesman named Tony tried to pop popcorn on the scorching asphalt without success. The heat was so intense it caused the metal deck of the Cherry Street bridge to swell dangerously. Firefighters poured gallons of water on it to shrink it back down to size. When stores ran out of electric fans, creative citizens reversed their vacuum cleaners, filled hot water bottles with ice cold water, or camped out in front of their refrigerators. Air conditioned movie theatres stayed open round the clock. The most visible effect of the heat wave was the human exodus. Clutching mattresses and blankets, the Toronto waterfront from the Beach neighbourhood to Parkdale was jammed with people desperate to escape the temperature, even for a few moments. “With no relief in sight, thousands of citizens went native, abandoning their houses,” the Star reported. “Donning bathing suits, pyjamas, shorts and the lightest of garments, they climbed into motor cars and made for Toronto’s thirteen miles of lake front to spend the night.” In the early hours of the morning, beaches from Sunnyside to Kew were a sea of people—some sleeping, others enjoying the bizarre spectacle of the city uprooted and dumped on the lake shore. “It was the younger crowd … who turned night into day,” wrote the Star. “They frolicked on the now cooled sands, swam in the refreshing water, built bonfires, turned on portable radios, strummed on guitars and whiled away the night with song and laughter.” Thousands of people slept on Toronto’s beaches and in parks during the heatwave. The air closer to water was slightly cooler. Toronto Daily Star, July 11, 1936. The third day of the heatwave, July 10, was when things started to unravel. With the temperature again 40.6 C, people began to die in significant numbers. The Star and Globe newspapers started publishing lists of the deceased, which mostly consisted of old people and children. Some expired due to heart attacks, others due to drownings in rivers, canals, and lakes. Many fainted and didn’t wake up. The Star recorded 22 deaths in Ontario at the time it went to press on the 10th. By next morning, that number had spiked to 80, and by the end of the week it had reached 550—225 of them in Toronto. The heat other associated misadventures were claiming so many victims morgue staff, grave diggers, and florists worked overtime to keep up with the demand. Despite the extreme heat, the humidity was mercifully low—around 25 percent (a Humidex reading of 45 C.) Had it been higher the death toll would certainly have been worse. By the time the heat finally dipped into the high 20s on July 15, more than 200 people in Toronto were dead. Across Canada, the final death toll was approximated to be 1,180. A million dollars worth of crops across the province were ruined, the city’s water supply was about 30,000 gallons short of its normal level, and tarmac all over the city was rucked and curled. “It is Hudson Bay air we have been getting last night and today,” said one weatherman on July 10, the first day of cooler weather. “It surely makes a difference.”
9 Comments
Hey Yaya:
Reply
yayacanada
29/5/2019 09:55:42 am
Hi Penny: I think of you every time I'm out walking. You wouldn't like the look of the lilacs here, nor how quickly the tulips seem to fall apart. It gets quite cold at night. Right now it's only 11C.
Reply
yayacanada
29/5/2019 11:49:43 am
Re: Wildfires
Reply
Yes, it was quite a rebrand, Necessitated when the 'warming' was not appearing- so they quickly moved the 'climate change'. Duh, the climate always changes..
Reply
Just a quick blurb on the benefits of fire - Fire ecology
Reply
yayacanada
29/5/2019 11:00:29 pm
Penny: Thanks for that link! It seems obvious the hype about wildfires is no more than just that - purposeful hype.
Reply
Yaya
11/7/2022 10:46:05 am
Thanks, Veronica, for visiting and commenting. Please do come back again.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
WORLD NEWS * * * * * * * * --->NEW Feb 08 U.S. Shoots Down Spy Balloon Getting Too Close To Ukraine (Satire) BabylonBee LINK (Thanks to M.R.) Feb 06 MD-PhD Student: Time for Scientists to Admit We Were Wrong About COVID PFYT2 LINK Feb 04 VIDEO: Dr. Bhakdi re Thai Princess' Covid vaccine coma LINK (Thanks to Dr. HIggs) Feb 02 VIDEO: Scores of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike LINK Feb 01 PETITION: Stop Online Censorship RebelNews LINK 🚚 🚚 🚚 🚚 🚚 🚚 🚚 🚚 PANDEMIC TRUTH * * * * * Leading voices in the fields of science, healthcare, law and journalism: "STOP WORLD CONTROL" LINK. The Exposé - UK - Vaccine Reports from Canada and around the World. LINK VACCINE CHOICE CANADA LINK PANDEMIC TRUTH ARCHIVE: Scroll to 2022 for News Items * * * * * * * * ![]() Photo by Brian O'Connor, North Bay
QUOTE of the MONTH: “In God we trust, all others bring data.” Right Climate Stuff LINK *** NOTICES *** ** Hassan Diab ** France Sets April 2023 Trial Date! Read what you can do to help Hassan Diab. LINK THE LIGHT Paper LINK DRUTHERS: If I had my druthers, we all would know the truth - LINK LENDMAN Blog - LINK NoJabForMe: LINK Mounties for Freedom LINK CDN Civil Liberties Assoc. (CCLA) LINK Constitutional Rights Centre (CRC) LINK ONT Civil Liberties Assoc. (OCLA) LINK LEADING CAUSES OF DEATHS IN CANADA WorldAtlas - LINK ---------------------- CLIMATE CHANGE? 50 Yrs of Failed Predictions LINK * DR. ROGER HIGGS * ResearchGate: Climate PROJECT LOG: LINK FRIENDS OF SCIENCE LINK "THE RIGHT CLIMATE STUFF" LINK ---------------------- JUSTICE FOR MOHAMED HARKAT PETITION: Stop Moe Harkat’s deportation to torture LINK Will We Allow Canada To Deport Mohamed Harkat To Torture? ... HuffPost The True North Not So Free ... YYC: PLEASE DONATE Visit here to donate online. FREE ASSANGE! Read: CounterCurrents Watch: UK Column ---------------------- PALESTINE Canada Palestine Assoc.Vancouver LINK VIDEO: The Prison Remains the Same - IsraelPalestineNews Amnesty.org: This is Apartheid. 05/22 Jewish Voice for Peace: Anti-Zionism is not Antisemitism PCHR: Palestinian Centre for Human Rights IMEMC News: ISRAEL'S ONGOING ASSAULTS ON PALESTINIAN FAMILIES Palestine Photo Project LINK ---------------------- |