What would you guess is the deadliest disaster in Minnesota history? A wildfire? Blizzard? Tornado? It was none of those. In 1936, a long-term heat wave killed at least 900 across Minnesota.

Heat is America’s top weather killer, even in the age of air conditioning and community pools.

For the return of the long-running Climate Cast, we wanted to revisit the terrible cost of the 1936 heat wave that hit 90 years ago this month. On July 14, 1936, experts estimated a person was dying every three minutes in Minneapolis alone as a direct result of the heat.

In this episode, MPR News chief meteorologist Ben Cathey speaks with with Geoff Williams, the author of a new book, “The Summer of Death.” Williams calculates that at least 12,000 people died across America. He thinks Minnesota’s official death toll is likely severely under-calculated.

Click play on the audio player above to listen to this episode or subscribe to the Climate Cast podcast.

Derechos are devastating, fast-moving bands of thunderstorms capable of producing destructive winds. Minnesota has experienced several, including the Boundary Waters blowdown in 1999. But research suggests derechos could become twice as common in a warming climate.

MPR News chief meteorologist Ben Cathey spoke with members of the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota in Roseville about the impacts these storms can have on wildlife.

He also spoke with Logan Bundy, a meteorologist at Northern Illinois University, about what derechos could look like in the future.

Click play on the audio player above to listen to this episode or subscribe to the Climate Cast podcast.

For years, Climate Cast has been a place to make sense of a changing planet — explaining the science, the solutions and the people behind the issue.

MPR News chief meteorologist Paul Huttner sat down with Tom Crann during the Minnesota Climate Adaptation Awards to reflect on Climate Cast’s roughly 650 episodes and its focus on climate science, news and solutions.

“Climate change is a huge problem. We are seeing it every day,” Huttner said. “But there are so many good people working on solutions, and the technology of those solutions is here now.”

Plus, hear some former guests of Climate Cast send along their regards to Huttner.