noon
It was a dry , high country , noted for an equable climate , with cool summers and mild winters . And this unprecedented wave would have been unbearable had not the atmosphere been free from humidity . The haze of heat seemed like a pall of thin smoke from distant forest fires . The sun rose , a great , pale-red ball , hot at sunrise , and it soared blazing-white at noon , to burn slowly westward through a cloudless , coppery sky , at last to set sullen and crimson over the ranges . Spokane , being the only center of iron , steel , brick , and masonry in this area , resembled a city of furnaces . Business was slack . The asphalt of the streets left clean imprints of a pedestrian 's feet ; bits of newspaper stuck fast to the hot tar .