Iran city hits suffocating heat index of 154 degrees, near world record

[villager]

Source: Washington Post

Wherever you live or happen to travel to, never complain about the heat and humidity again.

In the city of Bandar Mahshahr (population of about 110,000 as of 2010), the air felt like a searing 154 degrees (67.8 Celsius) today, factoring in the humidity.

Its actual air temperature was 109 degrees (42.8 Celsius) with an astonishing dew point temperature of 90 (32.2 Celsius). (If you use NOAA’s calculator, that actually computes to a heat index of 159 degrees).

Bandar Mahshahr sits adjacent to the Persian Gulf in southwest Iran where water temperatures are in the 90s. Such high temperatures lead to some of the most oppressive humidity levels in the world when winds blow off the water.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2015/07/30/iran-city-hits-suffocating-heat-index-of-154-degrees-near-world-record/

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Look for these kinds of stories to recur more and more often. And to be looming factors in the unrest in such regions (whether the Washington Post will ever give us that context or not...)

[SheilaT]

1. 154 degrees?

You can practically bake cookies at that temperature.

Can we believe that the heat index given is actually accurate? I know that some years back the wind chill index was revised, because it was giving colder temps than were accurate. How about this?

Which doesn't in any way alter the fact of global warming.

[eggplant]

2. Een if it is +/- 20 degrees (and that seems like a lot), that's still 134 degrees. Ouch.

[EL34x4]

4. Not really that hot. Just feels that way.

A transplant to Florida, I always hear them talk about the "heat index" as in, "today's high will be 95 degrees with a heat index of 105 degrees."

Well, is it 95 or 105?

FWIW, I've been to the Arabia in the summer (yes, I know Iran isn't Arabia) and it's hot. Really, really hot. But you actually get used to it. I found myself most comfortable wearing a long-sleeve shirts because they kept the sun off my skin.

[madokie]

16. It gets hot here in northeast Oklahoma

and I know a lot of people who wear long sleeve shirts and jeans and they tell me that its cooler than me wearing no shirt or barely a shirt and shorts. I guess the 15 months in Vietnam and all the heat and humidity there plus having to wear full clothes soured me on wearing long sleeves and pants in the heat.

[Thor_MN]

5. Windchill was revised because it was initially based on freezing a bag of water at some height.

While we are essentially bags of water, I think the height was something like 20 feet. It was revised to make it more in line with what a human would experience on the ground.

Can't really speak towards a heat index of 154 degrees because all you would find of me is a charred puddle of organic goo and some bones at temperatures much lower than that.

[jtuck004]

6. The problem is that your body acts as if it "feels that way". So it acts like it is 154, and

if you are not careful you wind up lying on the tarmac dying.

Other than that it's not too bad.

[enlightenment]

7. Exactly.

Folks don't realize that you need to hydrate, especially in humid temps - they figure that it's so humid that they don't have to drink any more fluids. And they pay the price.

[jtuck004]

8. There is, or was, an airshow in OKC every year - hotter than hell, and on an airport

runway which raised the temps that these folks were used to by 20 or more degrees, and increased the humidity as well.

Great place for new medics to go train on treating people for heat exhaustion, heart problems, seeing the differences, etc.

As you said, and even when they are told repeatedly, some just don't see it until it is too late.

[enlightenment]

13. I learned the hard way, many years ago.

Working the ramp at Tinker AFB. We'd been loading and off-loading for hours; the ambient air temp was in the high 90s with outrageous humidity. The interior of the aircraft (they measured it) was in the 140 range, and we were in and out and in and out and I felt like we were swimming.

Long story short; while sitting waiting for the next plane to come in, my Sgt looked at me - grabbed and tossed me over his shoulder and sprinted for the ramp office. We hit the AC cooled room and the next thing I knew I was waking up in a super-cooled bed (basically an ice bath) in the hospital. Heat stroke, not exhaustion.

He was smart and saw that my t-shirt and cap were completely dry. Saved me, certainly - and I learned a valuable lesson (and permanently screwed up my internal thermostat, but that's a different story).

[Runningdawg]

29. The worst sunburn I ever had

was from a show at Tinker.

[Reter]

9. It only feel that high to living beings

Inanimate objects need the actual temperature to bake or boil.

[Uncle Joe]

3. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, villager.

[Reter]

10. I hope to God men and women there are dressing down

Even if you're highly religious, put it aside. Strip down and drink plenty of water, the temperature could easily kill someone.

[christx30]

24. History of Islam in that part of the world

would disagree with you.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Mecca_girls'_school_fire

Their religion (or interpretations of their religion) means everything to them, even more than their very lives. They aren't going to set anything aside, even if it will literally kill them.

[itcfish]

31. Hope You Are Not Referring to Iranians

Believe it or not, the majority of people are not very religious at all.

[christx30]

32. I was mostly referring to their culture.

They will usually choose some cultural taboo over the health and safety of their citizens, as has been discussed in this thread.

[SheilaT]

11. I have lived in fairly cold places

both northern NYS and Minnesota, as well as some fairly hot ones, Washington DC (without a/c), Phoenix and Tucson. So I have a lot of personal acquaintance with both wind chill and heat index.

On a personal note, when we moved from Minneapolis to Phoenix, my Minnesota friends would try to say, Oh, it's a dry heat. Dry heat? Try turning your blow drier, the one you use for your hair, on your face, and leave it on. Plus, overnight lows of 99 degrees? Actually the thing that got them to best understand the difference between the two was when I pointed out that the typical first day that the ice was off the lakes in MSP (Lake Harriet, Lake of the Isles, and Lake Calhoun) was the same date as the typical first date for 100 degrees in Phoenix. Both were (back in the early 1980's anyway) April 15. 100 degrees. Ice off the lakes.

The last summer that I lived in Tucson, 1968, we had a heat wave. Every single day it went over 100 degrees. Only one day did it not (downtown, not the official airport temp which was noticeably cooler) did it not go over 115 degrees. I wound up with a mild heat stroke. Not serious, but not very pleasant either.

Another comment on wind chill. One day, in January 1970, I think it was, the DC area was having then record low temps, just above zero degrees. I stood at a bus stop, nearly in tears because it was so cold. Wind chill of minus twenty. I took the bus to National Airport, where I got on a plane to Utica, NY. When I got off the plane, I laughed out loud, because I could tell it was minus twenty degrees (easily confirmed by the thermometer outside the entrance to the airport) and I wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as I'd been two hours earlier in DC.

[fizzgig]

15. i will take a dry heat any day

at least i can breathe and cool down in the shade. and, yes, the winter wind sucks.

[Adrahil]

18. Agreed. Also, it actually cools at night.

Just got back from Florida. It really wasn't exceptionally hit there (upper 80's-upper90's during the day), and with good hydration and lots of shade it was tolerable. But even after dark, when the temp dropped into the upper 70's), it still was sticky and oppressive.... downright unpleasant!

Back here in Indiana, it got up into the upper 80's, low 90's too, but with MUCH lower humidity and while it was hot in the sun, it was pleasant in the shade, and even feels cool in the evening.

I'll take that any day.

[csziggy]

20. True about the humidity at night

I got in an argument with a guy online when I was planning my house. He swore by using a whole house ventilation system at night to pull hot air out the top and cool air in from the bottom. I told him that would be horrible in Florida since the humidity approached 100% some nights over the summer. He called me a liar and said it could not be 100% unless it was raining. He could into believe that modern Florida houses did not use his house ventilation system.

I wish I had taken a screen shot the other night of the NOAA weather page for Tallahassee. That night the temperature was 88 F and the humidity was 100%. It was not raining and not even foggy, just super saturated.

If we ventilated the house as that guy had suggested, everything would be soaked overnight and we'd spend more energy dehumidifying the house during the day!

[SheilaT]

22. I can't comment about a house in Florida,

but my house in Overland Park, KS, had what they call an attic fan which pulled air through the house out through the attic. In the hottest months we'd simply use a/c, but in spring and fall it was absolutely wonderful, and in fact slightly higher humidity made the cooling effect even more noticeable. I loved it.

[csziggy]

23. It depends on the dew point as to whether humidity is refreshing or oppressive

The dew point is the temperature at which water starts condensing out of the atmosphere. If the dew point is 78 degrees and the temperature drops below that it will be sticky and uncomfortable.

The other night when the temperature was 88 and the humidity 100% that indicates that 88 was the dew point. Anything below 88 F will accumulate condensation and stay wet until the temperature gets above 88 or the humidity level is reduced.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

12. That's NOTHIN'....

Republicans want Iranians to experience 1,000,000 degrees.

[davidpdx]

14. Geez I feel sorry for people who have to endure that kind of heat

I just received an email from my mom saying it was going to be 111 today where she lives, but the humidity will only be 32%. According to the heat index that would be 127.

Here in Seoul it is 89, but with the humidity it is 99.

[jwirr]

17. I am old enough to be afraid of too much heat and we just put on the air conditioning in my end

of the house two days ago. Every time I look at it I think of the energy use. I actually had a nightmare about our future last night. My last thought as I woke up was we had better ask people in 3rd world countries how they survive.

So how do they survive. We have had some heat waves in this country and what you hear is all the people who die due to the heat. What is the real situation in these very hot areas of the world. How do they survive? And I do not mean how do the rich survive.

[Adrahil]

19. The same way our ancestors did in hot weather....

Don't work in the heat of the day. Wear clothing and hats to protect you from the sun. And sweat. A lot.

I joke a tad, but many of those 3rd world countries have high heat-related mortality and disease rates.

[jwirr]

21. That is what I was afraid of.

[JCMach1]

25. Relatively common during the Indian Monsoon season around the Persian Gulf

It gets so insanely hot and humid, the government weather bureau in Dubai constantly cheats and rarely reports temperatures beyond 45C.

Why? All of the foreign construction workers would not be allowed to work under those conditions according to law.

[MADem]

26. They've changed the headline already....worse, not better.

Iran city hits suffocating heat index of 165 degrees, near world record

I've been down that way. Even in better times, it's like breathing liquid air down there.

You're better off in a caravanserai in the desert, or a dried out underground wadi.

[Thinkingabout]

27. I feel for the residents. After Katrina hit New Orleans, temperatures hit 103 degees and some poor

Folks was transferred to an overpass without water, etc to suffer. A lot of RWers was making fun of them, no food, no rest rooms nothing to protect them from the heat or mosquitoes. It is sad.

[Snow Leopard]

28. Those poor

bastards, I'd be going stark raving mad.

[itcfish]

30. My Husband is from Iran

And he says this is not normal heat. July and August it does reach the high 90's, but never over that. This for sure has to be due to climate change.

[villager]

34. Since I posted, there was another story about a temperature *10 degrees higher than that* in Iran

You wonder now what the "ceiling" will be, thanks to our tampering with the climate....

[Blue_Tires]

33. God DAMN!!!

Those folks would be cooler even if they took a vacation to Death Valley(!)