Us old timers used to call them droughts!!!
My late father's description of the drought in the 1930s, right here in Michigan, made me realize that the drought I witnessed in the 1980s was merely an inconvenience where some curbside trees died along streets in Grand Rapids. :^) That was the year I started my long streak of swimming in Lake Michigan -- the water stayed above 80° for months.
It's 100° (not the Lake, the air) today, and while I love the hot weather, I won't be going through another summer without a pool in the backyard.