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54C Recorded In Kuwait Likely Hottest On Record In Asia (foxnews.com)

An anonymous reader writes from an Associated Press report: The UN weather agency said it suspects that the 54C temperature recorded in Kuwait has set a record for the eastern hemisphere. The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said Tuesday it is setting up a committee to look into whether the temperature recorded last Thursday in Mitrabah, Kuwait, was a new high for the eastern hemisphere and in Asia. WMO's Omar Baddour said it is "likely" to be an eastern hemisphere record. Last week, swathes of the Middle East and North Africa and were hit by heatwaves that have become more frequent over the last half-century, and Earth is fresh off the hottest six months on record. WMO says the world record high of 56.7C was recorded at Furnace Creek in Death Valley, California, in 1913. In the UAE, highs of 49C are expected inland on Wednesday. Last year, the mercury rose above 50C in Sweiham, near Al Ain.An article on Citylab, citing NOAA's latest analysis notes that it was the warmest June in the modern history and also the 14th consecutive month of unprecedented hotness.

8 of 355 comments (clear)

  1. Overlooking a larger trend... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The land surrounding the Persian Gulf will be uninhabitable by mid-century. The daily heat will be too hot for everyone's grandmother and camel.

  2. Re:That's 129.2F if you're interested. by allcoolnameswheretak · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Meanwhile, conservative America still has its head up its ass insisting that climate change is a liberal conspiracy and evolution the thing of the devil.

    Now there's something Saudi Arabia and the US have in common. Love for oil, religious nutjobs and ignorance towards scientific evidence.

  3. Re:That's 129.2F if you're interested. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Just because the "liberal" party in the US stumbled in to the scientific position on many issues, that doesn't mean it isn't ready to drop the emotion bomb when science doesn't back them up. It is great to have science back you up on your political positions but don't use it as some sort of righteous defense for your political affiliation unless you will break with the party when they are clearly in the wrong.

  4. Re:That's 129.2F if you're interested. by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What does Fahrenheit relate to? Who knows?

    0F is the temperature of a particular ice/brine mixture, and it was approximately the lowest temperature typically experienced in Fahrenheit's area. I suppose that one advantage of that is not having to use negative values very often.

    100F is approximately human body temperature. That's pretty easy to relate to.

    One nice property of the system is that 0F is often dangerously cold, and 100F is often dangerously hot.

  5. Re:That's 129.2F if you're interested. by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    One nice property of the system is that 0F is often dangerously cold, and 100F is often dangerously hot.

    Surely that's more applicable to Celsius. 0C is the point at which water freezes most places, forming dangerous ice. It's also close to the point where you can start to experience severe health problems due to the cold if you don't take care.

    100C is the boiling point of water. the point at which it starts to become steam that can burn you and at which contact can do severe, lasting damage to your skin. Well, okay, 80C+ is pretty bad too.

    The other big advantages of the 0C and 100C points are that you can use water to calibrate your sensor reasonably well, by simply freezing or boiling it.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  6. Re:That's 129.2F if you're interested. by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Kerry says AC is worse than ISIS.

    You are a terrorist, apparently.

    Kerry is an asshat and not to be taken seriously. Why do you Americans keep on voting is morons from the Democratic party? They have no clue what they are doing.

    Because they like them better than the morons from the Republican party.

    --
    Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
  7. Re:You made the bed. Now sleep in it. by CaptainLard · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And people wonder why we don't believe Global Warming.

    I don't wonder. I see it as one of the human brain's greatest weaknesses. More and more research shows that once people pick a side, they are highly likely to dig in and contrary evidence actually reinforces their incorrect position. Perhaps this served some evolutionary purpose (you only need to learn fire is hot once) but in today's world where humans have the capability to drastically alter the environment we need to listen to the fucking facts.

    Lead is bad for the brain even if the lead industry spends 50 years and $millions trying to prove otherwise. Smoking causes cancer even if the cigarette industry spends 50 years and $millions trying to prove otherwise. The average global temperature is rising due to human emissions of a known greenhouse gas into the atmosphere at a rate that does indeed match most models even if the fossil fuel industry spends 50 years and $millions trying to prove otherwise. Not exactly sure what industry is against vaccinations (maybe religion) but apparently you might not even need a shadowy group to cause trouble (see recent measles outbreaks).

    For an especially hilarious example, see the John Oliver clip where newt ginrich repeatedly basically says "my feelings are more important than your facts for making policy". If humanity as a whole can evolve past that bullshit maybe we have a shot at colonizing space...or at least finding out if the physics of the universe allow it. If not, then I guess we don't deserve to and we'll get wiped out and the earth will try again in a few hundred million years.

    Anyway, hopefully the deniers are right cause if not, we're fucked.

  8. Re:That's 129.2F if you're interested. by thegarbz · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Actually the truly nice thing about Celsius is that it is just a form of measurement. People take to the form of measurement they grow up with. They equate things in ways that make sense to them. Celsius is no better than Fahrenheit in that regard (I'm waiting for the person who last time came out to say that the nice thing about Fahrenheit is that you change your cloths only on factors of 10 so you can wear the same cloths from 70F-79F)

    I can draw comparisons to the length of a meter but not for yards. I can tell you the wonderful things about Celsius, and kPa, but ultimately it won't matter for someone who once figured out that a good metric for a foot is the length of a subway sandwich and will always continue to think of it like that.

    The only truly superior part about the metric system is dead simple unit conversions. But saying one measurement equates better with the environment than another only shows to the world which measurement you grew up with.