Source: Tasmanian News
URL: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/185265235
Date: 16/07/1901
Event: "...the heat was so intense that over a thousand persons succumbed..."
Credit: Tasmanian News, Trove (National Library of Australia)
TASMANIAN NEWS - JUL 16, 1901
THE HEAT WAVE IN AMERICA AND EUROPE
According to the accounts published last week, there were several days in America when the heat was so intense that over a thousand persons succumbed, to say nothing of the hundreds of horses that fell dead, notwithstanding that, in New York at least, the fire brigades were employed hosing them down as they passed along the asphalt roadways, which, in their turn, were a mass of melted pitch.
It was predicted by some of the weather-wise prophets of America that this sort of thing would continue for a month or more, and even become intensified, but fortunately their prognostications turned out to be incorrect, as cooler weather set in, and was succeeded by heavy rains.
Now, we learn that the heat wave has crossed over to Europe, and that in London and Paris there has been a repetition of the horror, although fortunately in a much milder form. Yet we learn that the heat which brought about this condition of things was caused by considerably under 100 degrees of Fahrenheit - quite a mere warm summer condition of the atmosphere in the eyes of most Australians. Last summer, in many of the towns of Australia, it ran up to ten degrees beyond the century, and although it was then admitted to be "pretty warm", our death-rate as a result was nothing worth speaking about, and was mainly confined to young children - mostly infants.
It has to be remembered though, that the condition of the atmosphere is very different in America, and in most of the cities in Europe, from that of Australasia - in fact, so much so, that we can better bear a heat of 110 degrees than the residents of those parts can a heat of 80 degrees. And without wishing to blow our own trumpet, we think we may assert, without fear of contradiction, that, good as the climate of the greater part of Australasia may be, that of Tasmania is best of all. Subject neither to excessive heat or excessive cold, it well deserves its title of "The Garden of Australia."