<P> The heat wave and drought largely ended in September, though many states were still drier and warmer than average . Many farmers' summer harvests were destroyed . Grounds and lawns remained parched . Annual temperatures returned to normal in the fall . </P> <P> As many as 5,000 heat related deaths were reported in the United States, and 780 direct and 400 indirect deaths in Canada . Many people suffered from heat stroke and heat exhaustion, particularly the elderly . Unlike today, air conditioning was in the early stages of development and was therefore absent from houses and commercial buildings . Many of the deaths occurred in high population density areas of Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Toronto and other urban areas . Farmers across the continent saw crop failure, causing corn and wheat prices to rise quickly . Droughts and heat waves were common in the 1930s . The 1930s are remembered as the driest and warmest decade for the US (the Dust Bowl years) and the summer of 1936 was the most widespread and destructive heat wave to occur in the Americas in centuries with temperatures high over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in places like Iowa and Des Moines . </P>

During the dust bowl years heat records were set in some locations that still stand today