The summer and autumn of 1975 were very dry, and the winter of 1975–76 was exceptionally dry, as was the spring of 1976; indeed, some months during this period had no rain at all in some areas. In the Central England Temperature series, 1976 is the hottest summer for more than 350 years. Heathrow had 16 consecutive days over 30 °C (86 °F) from 23 June to 8 JulyThe great drought was due to a very long dry period. The drought was at its most severe in August 1976 and in response parliament passed the Drought Act 1976.In Ireland the temperature reached 32.5 °C (90.5 °F) in The 1976 heatwave is understood to have been the cause of 20% 'excess deaths' and there were significantly more hospital emergency admissions from 24 June to 8 July 1976 than for the same period in 1975 or 1974.The extensive fires paradoxically helped preserve many areas of The average temperature over the whole summer (June, July, August) was 17.77 °C (63.99 °F), compared to the average for the unusually warm years between 2001–2008 of 16.30 °C (61.34 °F).