Angkor Wat. Cambodia. 1993.

The UN troops were measuring 54 C in the shade—which equals 129.2 F.

It was friggin hot.

The ink in my BIC pen turned to liquid and melted in my jacket.

The film in my camera got soft and wobbly. Pictures turned out bad.

The heat on the stones of the temples was so intense that you couldn't linger. It was like a hot plate. You had to keep moving and dancing—or your feet would burn.

At some point we discovered an air-conditioned hotel and said "feck the temples". For the rest of the week it was cold tiger beer and hot Cambodian women.

Saudi sees several days 129 or so during the summer. Makes a terrible place to be even worse.

Front or back?

14.0 Tb: lowest tolerated in infant humans: Saskatchewan 1994
16.0 Tb: lowest tolerated in humans
18.0 Tb: lowest tolerated in humans: Chicago, IL 1951 (thawed for 1.5 hr)
18.0 human comfort (more strenuous work): Tair = 18 oC, wind > 0.13 m/s
24.0 human comfort (desk work) = 55%-60% rh, Tair= 24 oC, wind= .07-.13 m/s
26.0 Tb: cardiac arrest in humans
27.0 Tb: loss of consciousness in humans
29.0 Martian day
29.2 Tlc in water for humans
28.0 Tb: humans do not respond to words, atrial fibr.
32.2 Tb: muscle rigidity in humans
33.4 Tb: human information recall drops to 30% of normal
33.5 typical male human testicular T
34.6 Tb: memory impairment, halucinations in humans
35.0 Tb: maximum shivering in humans
37.0 typical human oral Tb
46.0 Tb: highest human tolerated: ??authentic?? London 1875
56.7 T rock in deepest mine (Homestake: Lead, SD)
56.7 highest air temperature in US: Death Valley, CA


- all in oC
58.0 highest air temperature Worldwide: Azizia, Tripolitania 13 Sep. 1922

There are human limits BUT conditioning make a big difference. I often think of my parents & grandparents and my wife's parents & grandparents. Imagine surviving Oklahoma summer on a rural farm in the 1930s. Think of the dust bowl days of almost no rain and 100 degree temperatures all summer with no electricity. They did not have a fan and air conditioning was not even dreamed about. If you wanted some water you went to the well and used the hand pump. The dust storms would come and all they could do was wet down sheets and hang them in front of the windows. At night it might drop to 90 degrees. The wimps left, the tough ones stayed at home.

I am old enough to say with all honesty that I never went to school that was air conditioned. Now days they will send the kids home if the AC fails. People die now with every heat wave.

Saudi during gulf 1 was about 125 every day. the aircraft were too hot to touch, but they worked and so did we! drank a lot of tanuff water!!!! I think humidity plays a big part.

I spent a weekend near Bullhead AZ it was 125 during the day, 110 during the night.

When I was racing karts I spent three days at 116 @Willow Springs wearing a THICK nylon kart suit, gloves kneck brace etc.

I also drove the '67 fastback at Willow around that temp with the heater on trying to not melt the engine (240 degrees!):eek::eek::eek::eek: