40 years ago: Drought becoming increasingly serious

Richard Garrett, meteorologist in charge of the Topeka Weather Bureau, said that the month of July 1970 was the sixth driest since tabulation was begun in 1878. He said that the current drought was becoming increasingly serious. Local farmers were beginning to cut corn for silage since its grain value had been damaged beyond repair. Fruit trees were also showing the worst damage in ten years.

At noon, the Journal-World thermometer stood at 104 degrees. Long-time local weather observers, however, recalled the worst summer ever in Lawrence history as being in 1934, when there were more than 30 straight days of temperatures over 100 and a record-breaking week between August 5 and 11 when the mercury went over 110 every day.