A look back at the deadly 1995 Chicago heat wave, and other hot spells back to 1911
The 1995 Chicago heat wave is the most notorious and deadly of the city's hot spells, and in fact the deadliest weather event in the city's history. With the Midwest again trapped under a heat dome, with scorching temperatures and sweltering humidity, the lives lost more than 30 years ago have been top of mind for many.
But while potentially dangerous and certainly uncomfortable, the 2026 Chicago heat wave is not expected to have the devastating and deadly effects of 1995, or other severe heat events earlier in the 20th century.
The 1995 heat wave is Chicago's deadliest weather event
Coming up on 31 years ago, a stretch of dangerously hot days made for what remains the deadliest weather event in Chicago history. For five consecutive days, not just heat indices, but raw temperatures topped 100 degrees.
On Thursday, July 13, the high hit 104 degrees at O'Hare International Airport — the hottest reading during the heat wave, and the second-highest temperature recorded in Chicago history. The heat index was reported at 119. But at that point, the headlines were still focused on relatively benign annoyances like car engines conking out, or a bridge getting stuck on Roosevelt Road.
Summer school went on with no air conditioning at Dunbar High School in Bronzeville on July 13. Residents opened fire hydrants despite being asked not to. CBS Chicago weatherman Paul Douglas delivered his forecast from our old building's rooftop weather deck with his feet in a wading pool.
But as the days dragged on, headlines about power outages and water shortages took a back seat to a far more gruesome and horrific reality.
At the Cook County Medical Examiner's office, a long line of police wagons were backed up transporting dead bodies. The morgue became so overwhelmed that the State of Illinois had to send in refrigerated trucks to store all the bodies.
On an average night at the time, the morgue received 17 bodies. Just on Friday, July 14, it received 87.
The death toll that week topped out at 739. Most of them were elderly and they died alone, behind locked doors and sealed windows, protecting their property while jeopardizing their lives.
Seventy-three percent of the heat-related deaths were residents over the age of 65. More than half lived on the West and South sides of the city.
The heat wave has gone down in history as being grossly mishandled by the city.
"You can't imagine a city doing a worse job in a crisis," sociologist Eric Klinenberg told CBS News Chicago last year. Klinenberg criticized city leaders in his 2002 book, "Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago."
"The mayor was on vacation. The Health Department commissioner was on vacation. The Fire Department commissioner, who manages paramedics — on vacation," Klinenberg said. "So the B team was running the City of Chicago."
As the death count and the temperature continued to rise, Mayor Richard M. Daley faced political heat as well. At one point, the mayor joined Ald. Bernard Hansen (44th) for a tour of a large section of Lakeview that was hit with a multi-day power outage at the height of the heat due to a ComEd substation fire.
But the hundreds of deaths already recorded by then had nothing to do with that power outage, and most happened in areas that never lost power.
The mayor did confess to the inadequacy of the response. A week after the heat set in, he also formed a commission on extreme weather conditions — putting in place a new plan to better respond to emergencies.
Meanwhile, Chicago Human Services Commissioner Daniel Alvarez Sr. faced calls for his resignation for remarks that some sounded like victim blaming.
"We are talking about people that died because they neglect themselves," Alvarez said on Monday, July 17. "There was no contact with anybody."
The mayor defended Alvarez, and he did not resign.
Thirty years later, the city says practices have changed.
Kaila Lariviere is manager of emergency management services at the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications — an office that was formed just months after the 1995 heat wave, and continues to be front and center in every emergency.
Lariviere said last year that if there is an emergency like the one seen in 1995, "We at OEMC start activating plans left and right."
Other Chicago heat waves
The summer of 1988 was also unusually hot in Chicago, and also brought a drought. The National Weather Service pointed out that there were 47 days that summer in the 90s and seven days with temperatures over 100. Both figures set records.
However, the drought kept humidity lower, and 1988 ended up being only the 10th warmest summer on record.
What was the hottest summer on record? It wasn't 31 years ago, but 71 years ago. There were four consecutive scorching hot summers in Chicago from 1952 through 1955, and the NWS notes that the summer of 1955 remains the hottest on record in Chicago, with an average temperature of 81.3.
The summer of 1955 also had 46 days with temperatures 90 or above. In 1953, 1954, and 1955, there were 11 consecutive days where temperatures hit or topped 90 degrees.
As noted in archive news reports, Chicagoans weren't basking in air conditioning during the heat wave in 1955. They closed the windows and drew the blinds to block the sun during the day, turned on attic fans to draw out the hot air, and even trudged to the park to sleep, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The Dust Bowl summers of the 1930s also hit Chicago hard. June 1933 remains the hottest on record in Chicago, the NWS notes. The temperature hit 109 degrees at Midway Airport on July 23, 1934, still the highest on record.
The highest official temperature reading for Chicago was a day later, on July 24, 1934, when the mercury hit 105 at the University of Chicago — the city's official temperature recording site before O'Hare International Airport.
During the 1995 heat wave, again, the official highest temperature was 104 — although it reached 106 elsewhere in the city, including Midway Airport, on July 13, 1995.
John Russick, director of curatorial affairs at the Chicago History Museum, told WBBM Newsradio back in 2011 that the heat during those Great Depression years also had people sleeping on their roofs and in parks.
In the Tribune on July 24, 1934, the deaths of nine people — all from heat — were listed with names and addresses.
There was also a heat wave from July 26 through July 30, 1916, with temperatures at 80 or above for five consecutive nights. Overnight lows that high are indicative of very high humidity, the NWS notes.
From July 3 through July 5, 1911, temperatures topped 100 for three straight days — as part of a five-day streak with temperatures over 95, the NWS said.
