Heat Wave and Rising Death Rate in New York
—While we have been having it cool and rainy in Michigan, this is how it has been in New York, according to the Christian at Work, of June 3: “How the warm weather has poured in upon us like the sirrocco, the harmattan, or the simoon—or, as we might say, like the breath of a fiery furnace! The effect of all this heat is disastrous. While in May the death rate is usually 64 to 65 daily, on the two days preceding the first hot day, Tuesday, the rate was 64 for Sunday and 56 for Monday. Then come the hot wave, and the figures rose on Tuesday to 81, on Wednesday to 101, and on Thursday 141 deaths were reported. The heat has been almost unprecedented, while the fact that in May in this vicinity only one-tenth390 of an inch of rain fell, as against a rain-fall of four inches in the same time last year, and an average rain-fall of two-and-a-half to three inches, tells a rare story of heat and drought.”