EXTREME WEATHER events are not a new phenomenon, as anyone living in Wakefield in August of 1944 could attest. On Aug. 16 of that year, the town bore the brunt of a violent storm that reminded some of the devastation wrought by the infamous Hurricane of ’38 just six years earlier. When the storm struck at about 2 p.m. on the seventh day of a record-breaking heat wave, the temperature in Wakefield plummeted from 99 degrees to 78 degrees in about 15 minutes. But once the storm had passed, the temperature bounced right back up to 94 degrees. Lightning from the 1944 storm knocked chimneys off houses and fierce winds tore large branches the size of medium-sized trees from Lakeside elms and willows all along Main Street from Lawrence Street to Central Street. At least a dozen trees along this stretch had large limbs torn from them, including one that fell across Main Street near Central Street, blocking traffic for 45 minutes.