Hottest July day in Kentucky came on June 28, 1930

July is our hottest month in Kentucky. Although it is going to be hot for the next several days, it is nothing unusual and it is not due to climate change. Climate change is having its effect all over the world with record setting heat levels, but our summer heat is one thing and climate change is another.

Don Estep is publisher of the News Journal.

Climate change may be responsible for the heat and fires, plus many other devastating effects, but when it is the month of July it is always hot.

We learned a long time ago that air conditioning is necessary to deal with the heat. The Europeans  aren’t equipped for the heat that is taking place there. Only five percent of their homes have air conditioning.

Although when I was a child in the 1950s it didn’t seem as hot as it does now in July, but it was. Our family didn’t have air conditioning then.  As a kid back then we played outside every day. Front porches were used to escape the heat in the evening hours, and we slept in a draft with the windows open. It was tough, but we had no other choice other than an oscillating fan to move the air.

We didn’t talk or even know about climate change then, but scientists had predicted as early as 1896 that due to carbon dioxide emissions substantial changes would increase the earth’s temperature. Then measurements taken in 1938 by scientists showed there should be concern about carbon emissions.

In 1976 Vice president Al Gore held the first congressional hearing on climate change. So, we have known about the effects of carbon dioxide for over 100 years, but we’ve done little about it. The sad thing about it is our grandchildren and great grandchildren are going to pay the price for the lack of action.

Much could have been done over the past 50 years, and more could be done today. The United States and China are the biggest contributors to this problem. It does bother me the lack of urgency that some who could do something about it don’t seem to care.

However, we sense it is not any hotter now in July than it was years ago and that gives us a false sense of the effect climate change is having.

According to the national weather service, the hottest day ever recorded in Kentucky was July 28,1930 in Greensburg when the temperature reached 114 degrees. The hottest summer ever recorded was 1936. The hottest year on record was 1921. There was a heat wave in the United States in 1901 that killed 9,500 nationwide.

More recently, we had an autumn heat and flash drought in 2019. One of the top 10 hottest summers on record was in 2007. There was an extreme drought in 1954.

Our average July temperature is about 88 degrees. For the next several days it will be in that range.

But for the record, 2020 was one of the hottest years on record worldwide, another sign of climate change.

Back in the 1950s when I was young we didn’t worry about the climate.  When it got too hot we would go to the ice plant and get a watermelon, find a shade tree and cool it or get a soda at Cottongim Drug’s counter. Some would go to the beach at the Falls and others would swim at the YMCA.

We found a way to deal with heat. Life was so simple then. However, I’m not forgetting about trying to sleep while perspiring.

Air conditioning has given us comfort that we never knew back then and the many things that cause climate change has made our lives better. Not that we have to give this up, but we do have to deal with it.