Read Article A Bain News Service photograph of people sleeping outside at The Battery in New York City during a heat wave about 1911. Library of Congress It’s been sizzling lately, no question about it, but Maine has seen worse. In 1911, in what may have been the worst weather crisis in the region’s history, a July heat wave that cooked the entire Eastern seaboard left Lewiston scorched, with factories shutting down and people collapsing. “Old Sol started in to warm up the first day of July and he’s been busy ever since,” the Lewiston Evening Journal reported, adding that the days grew ever more scorching.