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Iranian City Soars To Record 129F Degrees: Near Hottest On Earth in Modern Measurements (washingtonpost.com)
A city in southwest Iran posted the country's hottest temperature ever recorded Thursday afternoon, and may have tied the world record for the most extreme high temperature. From a report on The Washington Post: Etienne Kapikian, a forecaster at French meteorological agency MeteoFrance, posted to Twitter that the city of Ahvaz soared to "53.7C" (128.7 degrees Fahrenheit). Kapikian said the temperature is a "new absolute national record of reliable Iranian heat" (alternative, non-paywalled source) and that it was the hottest temperature ever recorded in June over mainland Asia. Iran's previous hottest temperature was 127.4. Weather Underground's website indicates the temperature in Ahvaz climbed even higher, hitting 129.2 degrees at both 4:51 and 5 p.m. local time. If that 129.2 degrees reading is accurate, it would arguably tie the hottest temperature ever measured on Earth in modern times.
Wow .. the water must be boiling in the streets!
Oh .. you mean 54 degrees .. like was mentioned in TFA
The information comes from Etienne Kapikian, a meteorologist with Meteo France, the French national weather service.
Officially, he said the temperature was 53.7 degrees Celsius, which is 128.7 degrees Fahrenheit. Iran’s previous hottest temperature was 127.4 degrees.
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Recorded high temperatures in Ahvaz in July are 129.2F, so this isn't the highest on record even for that city. It's a record for June, but, hey, it's the end of June. Ahvaz also holds the record as the "world's most air-polluted city". Incidentally, they do get snow in the winter. What a place!
Depends on the humidity.
You can survive well if you can sweat, but if humidity approaches 100%, you're dead.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
Your body releases sensible, latent, and radiant heat. When the outside (dry bulb) temperature exceeds your body temperature, you are not able to transfer any heat via sensible means. This leaves perspiration and hopefully cool surrounding surfaces. Since the latter isn't going to happen you are 100% reliant on perspiration. Once the wet bulb exceeds your body temperature too then you are stuck and you are in extreme danger of heat stroke.
130F in the sun even with 0% humidity isn't really viable without heat stroke.
In this case, the dewpoint was around 5F; wouldn't want to be there for long.
Isn't there a point though, where the body can't get rid of heat fast enough and your body temperature starts to rise, causing hyperthermia and heat stroke?
The laws of physics say that if it's 129F and your body temperature is 98.6F, the heat transfer will be INTO your body. At what point is evaporative cooling via sweat no longer enough? There is a physical limit; there has to be.
Assume one were to get to one point, consider that many areas of the world have been very hot for ages... and obviously w/o air conditioning.
Back then, people would not go out between noon and, say, 4. You would get up very early to work, go to a siesta and resume work in the afternoon. It wasn't that long ago that people back in my country of origin would wake up before 4 to go to the fields with lanterns, be back by 11 with milk and produce, take a nap and wait till 4 to resume work.
Desert dwellers would travel at night, and so on. Adaptability is not just limited to the physical. It covers the behavioral and social.
Isn't there a point though, where the body can't get rid of heat fast enough and your body temperature starts to rise, causing hyperthermia and heat stroke?
The laws of physics say that if it's 129F and your body temperature is 98.6F, the heat transfer will be INTO your body. At what point is evaporative cooling via sweat no longer enough? There is a physical limit; there has to be.
Human bodies cool off via evaporation of sweat. The outside temperature might measure at 129F, but as you sweat, it evaporates, dissipating heat off your body. As long as you are hydrated, this will work. Outside temperature would have to be a lot hotter than that to stop your body from cooling, hot enough for you to cook maybe.
Unless the relative humidity is 99%. Then you just stew in your own broth. 118 degrees of breezy, dry, desert heat feels like a bad 80-degree day in Miami. If it ever got to 120 degrees in Miami, people stuck outdoors would start to literally drop dead from heat.