Grove's Hot Weather No Match for 1952

If you thought this week's weather in Grove was hot, consider that on July 26, 1952 the official high temperature in Grove was 109 degrees. That was the year most people wanted to forget. It was over 90 degrees in most places as late as October. Most lakes and streams were at their lowest levels ever. It was the driest crop season in Oklahoma history.
And, there was no air conditioning in homes or cars.
A report, Climatological Data compiled by the US Dept. of Commerce and Weather Bureau, told of the misery. In Fort Scott, KS, the high temperature reached 120 degrees for a week in July.
But 1952 was just the start of a heat wave and drought that lasted three years and brought Grand Lake down to elevation 712 above sea level. The bottom of the power pool is 715 and only the House Unit was generating in June 1953, according to GRDA memos. Average in-flow for June 1953 was only 930 cubic feet per second, or a trickle. The lake level was at 721.02.
In late December 1953 Grand Lake reached its lowest level since the lake was filled in 1940.
Evaporation took an inch a day from the lake in the summer heat. Most marinas went out of business and Two Tree Island stuck out nearly 40 feet in the air. People could walk across the original Honey Creek bridge built before the lake.
So next time someone tells you how hot it is, remind them they should have been around in the good old days when it was really hot and the lake nearly went dry.