Name: Heat in Massachusetts, July 5 to 6, 2013
Start: 2013-07-05T13:00
End: 2013-07-06T16:40
Location: Massachusetts

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

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Floods
Wind
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Winter weather
Heat and drought
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Fire, smoke and dust
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The toll

Deaths: 1
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS BOX wrote it up.

A strong upper level ridge over southern New England resulted in a long period of very hot and humid weather across the region. July 3rd through July 7th all had high temperatures above 90 degrees, constituting an official heat wave for the city of Boston. Low temperatures provided little relief, dropping just below 80 degrees for much of the time. Despite the extended period of high heat and humidity, only one person succumbed to heat illness. That was a 45 year old postal worker in the city of Medford who died on July 6th. The official cause of death for the postal worker was heat illness. On July 6th the high temperature in Boston was 93. The heat index climbed to 90 degrees by 9am and remained above 90 degrees through 9pm. From 1pm-5pm, the heat index was 96 degrees.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Boston/Norton, MA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 5, 1:00 PM EST, 0 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 5, 1:00 PM EST, 0 minutes before

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Hazardous weather outlook, Jul 5, 3:04 AM EST, 9 hours 56 minutes before

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The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 heat. Local standard time, as filed.

Heat, Southeast Middlesex

When: July 5, 1:00 PM EST to July 6, 4:40 PM EST
Where: Southeast Middlesex forecast zone
Deaths: 1 direct, 0 indirect
Reported by: Newspaper
Coordinates: 42.486, -71.392 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

A 45 year old mail carrier died as a result of heat illness on July 6th. Temperatures in the area had climbed above 90 for the 3rd day in a row on the 5th, when the mail carrier was found and transported to the hospital. The high humidity levels resulted in heat indices above 90 degrees for the daylight hours and heat indices above 96 degrees for 8 to 9 hours beginning at 11am. The event start time indicates when heat indices climbed to 100 degrees and the event end time is the time at which he was found collapsed. He was pronounced dead the following morning at Massachusetts General Hospital.

The people who died

As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.

Event	Date	Age	Sex	Where	Kind
Heat, Southeast Middlesex	2013-07-06	45	Male	Outside/Open Areas	Direct

What these are

Heat: Heat below excessive heat criteria that still caused deaths, injuries or significant impacts.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Massachusetts in 2013 Every state in 2013 This day in weather history Warnings in Massachusetts, July 2013

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-10-01. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 462404.