Dear Tom,
Growing up in Chicago Heights in the late ’40s and ’50s, my mother claimed an “11th Commandment”: It must be hot on the Jewish High Holy Days. Do statistics bear that out?
— Bonnie Zarch, Skokie
Dear Bonnie,
The 1950s was one of the hottest decades in Chicago weather history, so it is not surprising that there were several hot days spent in synagogues without air conditioning during the September/October holiday period. There were at least a half-dozen such sweltering days, including Rosh Hashanah highs of 93 in 1955, 88 in 1953 and 85 in 1958 and very warm Yom Kippurs with highs of 85 in 1950, 89 in 1951 and 86 in 1958. However, over time, our memories tend to fade, focusing only on more memorable extreme events. There were also several comfortably cool holidays during this period with more seasonable highs in the 50s and 60s.
