From The KOTV Vault: 1980 Was Not The Best Summer Ever - NewsOn6.com - Tulsa, OK - News, Weather, Video and Sports - KOTV.com |

Editor's note: Moving day for News On 6 is coming at the end of the year, so we have to inventory everything in our old building. That includes thousands of old stories. We'll share the best of what we find here on NewsOn6.com.

Only a little over a week into summer, we've already had a week's worth of 100-degree days.

Last summer we suffered through 44 triple digit days.

But that's nothing compared to 1980.

We found video in our vault from that year, which saw 58, 100-degree days. That meant water shortages, mandatory rationing, neighbors turning in neighbors, and police patrols looking for violators.

Tulsa even made national news.

KOTV's Randy Lewin appeared on the CBS Evening News, back when Bob Schieffer was the anchor.

"In Tulsa, temps rose over 100 degrees for the 20th day in a row. Hospitals are near capacity—there have been a few heat related deaths," Lewin said.

The city implemented water rationing every other day, based on house numbers, but only in the early morning. Tulsa had watering police—real cops writing tickets to folks who thumbed their noses and used their hoses.