Texas Week, Volume 1, Number 3, August 24, 1946 Page: 8
34 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The S state
Texas Sizzles As Hot Air Mass Just SitsTexans sweltered..
So far they hadn't set any records at
it, but they were working at the job.
It was hot-just about as hot as most
folks sweating it out could remember.
Either the thermometers these days had
improved or the weather was getting
hotter. Back beyond 1936 the mercury
just hadn't gone as high as it was going
these days.
In 1936 the register in August went
up to 120, the highest ever recorded. Two
years ago it went to 117. So far this
August hasn't produced better than a
116, recorded in Henrietta. Some cool-
ing breezes the latter part of the week
gave hope that the situation might be
eased.
No ShQwers To Break the Heat
It was dry-but it wasn't the driest
farmers could remember. At that, how-
ever, July had been bad and August
showed promise of being worse.
The hitch lay in West Texas where
the rains were mighty few and .far be-
tween, the wilting, searing winds blew
out of the south and withered the crops.
Sub-soil moisture was getting scarce.
The trouble lay in dried-up stock water
tanks and dried grass and cattle getting
thinner every day.
And in feed crops which never reached
the harvest stage.
And in starving livestock sent to mar-
ket to avoid further starvation and
thirst.
And in the fertile Rio Grande Valley
where water was obtained from Mexico
What's more, the weather had become
extremely interesting and important to
the people in cities who had to stopwatering their grass every day, or who
were forced to ride to work in steamy
trolleys or who returned to parked cars
overheated in the beating sun or who
worked in stifling offices. Some did some-
thing about it. Carl Oliphant, Fort
Worth insurance man, stepped out in
Palm Beach shorts.
In Dallas the corporation court was
doing a good business with violators of
the alternate-day lawn-sprinkling ordi-
nance. One judge ruled that sprinkling
the kids to cool them off was illegitimate.
In San Angelo Game Warden Jim.
White broke a fish-catching record when
he had to seine 100,000 crappie, bass,
catfish and perch from the stagnant
mudholes that had been the North and
Middle Conchos, SpringaCreek, and sev-
eral miles of the Colorado river. Com-
merce was alarmed because its 800,000-
gallon-per-day water plant is unable to
supply the water necessary.
It's Just Hard to Remember
Governor Stevenson supported Com-
missioner J. E. Quaid's refusal to au-
thorize release of additional water from
the Rio Grande to help ease the drouth
predicament of New Mexico farmers.
Menard County denied McCulloch Coun-
tys' bid for release of sufficient San Saba
river water to alleviate a serious short-
age.
The heat was one, but Texans who
thought back to last year or a few
years before remembered that the heat
has usually been with us.
On the records, this was no record-
breaking summer-yet. Whether it would
be, no weatherman would say. Tempera-
tures were high; precipitation was low.
How long that situation would continue,not even the weathermen knew.
Behind all the dryness was .a battle, on
the part of a moisture-laden mass of
tropical air coming up from Mexico and
a still greater mass of hot dry air sit-
ting tight over Texas. The bigger mass
has been winning, and as a result, no
rain has been forthcoming. That's be-
cause the two have to join forces to
form the necessary rain.
Last Week a third party e. ftered the
picture, invaded through the Panhandle,
made slight inroads. The Panhandle and
the Plainview area enjoyed scattered
showers, some of them quite heavy
(Plainview "suffered" under a 1.45-inch
shower). But the invaders withdrew,
leaving the field clear to the forces of
aridity.
Extreme West Texas was hardest hit
-only '74 inches of rain in July against
an average over 58 years of 2.12 inches.
The Weather Bureau's middle division
at Texas was just about as bad-.77
inches compared with 2.91 average. Only
the eastern part of the state was holding
up with 3.10 compared with 3.78 inches.
The state's 1.49 was less than half of
its average 3.14 inches for July.
'Hurricane Could Bring Rain'
As usual, the farmers and ranchers
were the ones feeling the drouth the
worst. In the South Plains irrigation
area, farmers proudly cited their ir-
rigated fields, compared them with dry
land crops. Farther south feed crops'and
cotton already had been abandoned in
the face of the searing weather. Cattle
from all over West Texas were being
shipped off to market or to feed lots in
the middle west.
Any day a storm might come rushing
out of the Gulf to ease the situation,
at the same time costing millions in
storm damage (see below), but some
seers held to the belief that the only
thing which would save Texas from a
terrific drouth would be a good
hurricane.GONE WITH THE WIND
Principal HurriE 1Hin Texasp
C4 10'A
0z0- 0)Galveston Galveston South of Brazoria Cameron Calhoun Trinity Bay Matagorda
0razorin Nueces
1900 1915 1919 1932 1933 1934 1943 19451
Oh ~_
8 TEXAS WEEK
24 AUGUST 46
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Texas Week, Inc. Texas Week, Volume 1, Number 3, August 24, 1946, periodical, August 24, 1946; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth586553/m1/8/: accessed June 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Private Collection of the Raymond B. Holbrook Family.