In 1977, it was hot in Dallas. Really hot. So hot, that we couldn’t believe how hot. So we decided to see how hot it was in cities situated like ours around the world. Dallas sits at a latitude of 32 47N, and the cities closest to us on the parallel are Charleston, Tijuana, Casablanca, and Nanking. Since there’s been some talk about how hot Dallas is again this summer, I thought you might like a little report.
Charleston will hit around 90 with high humidity (of course).  Tijuana is in the 80s for the rest of the week, perhaps to be heated up by occasional gunfire. Casablanca is 84 right now, and the forecast looks to be about perfect. Nanking will wander up into the high 90s early next week. So, to sum up, everywhere else is great, and Dallas is not. So at around 4 pm today, when it hits 99 degrees, you can officially start complaining.
This information, of course, took only seconds to gather. In 1977, it was a little more difficult. That year’s recap after the jump:
Meanwhile, Along the 32d Parallel…
It seemed a simple enough proposition. The premise: Dallas is experiencing unusual weather of late. What about the weather in cities around the world located on our same latitude (the bond of latitude seeming a strong one in a meteorological sense)? We spun the globe to find our sister cities and discovered these, very close to the Dallas latitude of 32 47 N: Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.A.; Tijuana, Mexico; Casablanca, Morocco; and Nanking, People’s Republic of China. Okay, we thought, let’s check their weather.
Charleston (32 48 N): A call to the National Weather Service was logical. No, they said, you’ll have to contact the National Climatic Center in Asheville, North Carolina. There a Mr. Doehring was glad to offer these statistics about Charleston: It’s hotter than usual there this summer too, the mean temperature in June up by 3.3� from the average. And the winter in Charleston was cold, some 10 degrees below the usual mean in January. And they saw an inch of snow, something they almost never see in Charleston. Thank you, Mr. Doehring. Now, what about Tijuana?
Tijuana (32 29 N): “No,” said Mr. Doehring, “that’s a problem. We don’t have an official weather station there so we wouldn’t have statistics on Tijuana. How about San Diego?” No thanks, we’d find another source. Who would know about the weather in Tijuana? Ah, a Tijuana weatherman. We contacted HEWT-TV Channel 12 in Tijuana, but their weatherman wasn’t in. However, General Manager Jose Marquez was more than happy to give us these comments: “The climate here is very nice. It’s 72� today – it’s been a little cooler than the regular summer. The winds come from the southwest all the time, 3 to 10 miles per hour. We had a cold January, though, averaging 45 to 50 degrees. And it never rains in the summer.” Thank you, Mr. Marquez.
Casablanca (32 39 N): Who to turn to now? There must certainly be an agency in Washington solely reponsible for compiling and filing international weather data. U.S. Government Operator #44 sent us to the National Meteorological Center who gave us the telephone number of a Dr. Felch with the National Weather Service in Maryland who just might have the Casablanca data we were seeking. We called Dr. Felch only to find his num-ber was “not in service.” There had been mention of something called the Environ-mental Data Service, so it was back to the Government Operator where we asked for the phone number. “What agency is that under?” asked the operator. “It’s just called the Environmental Data Serv-ice,” we responded. “But what agency is it under?” “Uh, I don’t know what agency it’s under.” “Well, do you know what building it’s in?” “Never mind.” New idea; the U.S. Consulate in Casa-blanca. A call to the local operator: “I’d like to place an overseas call, please.” “Where to?” asked the operator. “Moroc-co.” “Morocco, Venezuela?” “Uh, no. Morocco, Africa.” “Oh.” The overseas connection was a barely audible one. we screamed our weather request and a Mr. Fendrick of the U.S. Consulate in Casablanca screamed back this report: “It’s much cooler than usual this summer, in Fahrenheit about 70 to 75 degrees in the day. Normally it’s about 85. The winter was cooler too, about 55 to 60 during the day. And the winter was much, much rainier than usual, flooded a lot of crops and ruined them. Then it stopped and hasn’t rained since so the crops are suffering from a drought. Otherwise, the weather is very normal.” Thank you, Mr. Fendrick.
Nanking (32 01 N): China. This would be difficult. No consulate in Nanking, so that route wouldn’t work. Who would know about the weather in China? Ah, of course. Who knows a little about everything? The CIA. We called the CIA in Washington and made our request. “I’m not sure,” said the answering voice. “Let me transfer you.” Transfer. Request. “I don’t know about that. “Let me transfer you to another office.” Transfer. Request. “1 wouldn’t have that information, but the office downstairs might. I’ll transfer you.” Transfer. Request. “No. There’s no information like that that I know of. No. We wouldn’t have that information. No.” Just like the movies. New approach: the State Department. We made our weather inquiry. We were offered a booklet called “China City Brief For Tourists.” No thanks. But they kindly offered the unlisted number of the People’s Republic Liaison Office in Washington. “Hello,” a distinctly Oriental voice answered. Ms. Chu Fu Wu listened to our question. “Ah,” Ms. Wu replied. “Nanking in summer very hot.” Is it any hotter this summer? “Usually very hot in summer.” Okay, how about the winters in Nanking? “Winter is cold.” All right. Was this past winter perhaps unusually cold for Nanking? “I don’t know. I was not there.” Thank you, Ms. Wu.
