Region has endured some historic droughts

By Tom Emery

This summer has been drier than normal in parts of the region. Fortunately, it’s nowhere close to the historic droughts that have hammered the region.

One of the worst was in 1953-54, when much of the Midwest was parched amid one of the most brutal heat waves on record. Rainfall in some areas in 1953 was as much as sixteen inches below normal. In Missouri, 1953 is the driest year on record, with a statewide average of 25.35 inches.

It was especially severe in the Alton area, where the Alton Telegraph reported that rainfall in the region was nearly 25 inches below average for 1953...