ploddingthroughthepresidents: I’ve seen a lot of complaints lately about the unbearable, recor

ploddingthroughthepresidents:

I’ve seen a lot of complaints lately about the unbearable, record-setting heat, but none of them are quite as perfect as this 1777 letter John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail about August in Philadelphia.

“We have been sweltering here, for a great number of days together, under the scalding wrath of the Dog Star. So severe a spell of heat has scarcely been known these twenty years. The air of the city has been like the fierce breath of an hot oven. Everybody has been running to the pumps all day long. There has been no finding a place of comfort—the shade, and the very entries of houses where they have the best drafts of air, have been scarcely tolerable.

“This season always affects me, deeply. It exhausts my spirits, and takes away all my strength of mind and body. I have never lived here in dog days, without becoming so enfeebled, and irritated, as to be unable to sleep soundly and regularly and to be still more reduced by night sweats. If I can avoid these inconveniences, this year, I shall be happy…

“When the Weather is so extreme, the fatigue of even holding a pen to write a letter, is distressing.”

How hot was it? It was so hot that it almost silenced John Adams.