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THE GLOOM AND HEAT OF SUMMER 2024

Yesterday was as pessimistic as this blog gets with WHAT HAVE WE WROUGHT?   Today does not get much better, for the World and the USA are not in a good place.

  • Wars in Ukraine and Gaza Strip show no sign of any kind of peace.  The NATO gathering in DC has an overtone of some Trump-fear.
  • Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters remain ecstatic.  Someone sent the following to me today.
  • Joe Biden is on the ropes, and his anticipated passing of the baton to Kamala Harris worries Democrats.  The concern is worse for him to remain as their presidential candidate.  Not sure what he will say at this press conference tonight (6:30 EDT), but that should at least provide a glimmer of what will soon happen, or not.
  • Record heat in the U.S.  Over 130 years of record-keeping, last month was the second warmest June.  The hottest was June 2021.   These cities recorded their highest June ever:

  • Caribou, Maine: 65.1° (64.9°/2021)
  • Flagstaff, Arizona: 66.7° (66.5°/1974)
  • Bridgeport, Connecticut: 72.6° (72.2°/2008)
  • Hartford, Connecticut: 74.1° (72.6°/1976)
  • Reno, Nevada: 75.8° (75.2°/2021)
  • Winslow, Arizona: 79.2° (78.1°/2021)
  • Baton Rouge, Louisiana: 84.6° (84.5°/2023)
  • Corpus Christi, Texas: 87.2° (86.8°/2013)
  • Brownsville, Texas: 88.3° (87.3°/1998)
  • El Paso, Texas: 89.3° (88.9°/1994)
  • Del Rio, Texas: 90.9° (90.5°/2023)
  • Las Vegas, Nevada: 94.6° (92.8°/2016)
  • Phoenix, Arizona: 97° (95.3°/2021)

Here’s Earth’s top-12 list of hottest reliably measured temperatures, in both Celsius and Fahrenheit, including ties. Readings from Furnace Creek in Death Valley (bold face) dominate the list.  The highest temperature ever recorded in Hawaii was at Pahala, where I once lived.  100F in 1931 at an elevation of 870 feet.

1) 54.4° C (130.0°F), July 9, 2021, Furnace Creek (California, U.S.) 
2) 54.4° C (129.9°F), August 16, 2020, Furnace Creek (California, U.S.)
3) 54.1° C (129.4°F), July 10, 2021, Furnace Creek (California, U.S.)
4) 54.06° C (129.3°F), July 7, 2024, Furnace Creek (California, U.S.)
5) 54° C (129.2°F), June 30, 2013, Furnace Creek (California, U.S.)
5) 54° C (129.2°F), July 21, 2016, Mitribah (Kuwait)
7) 53.9°C (129.0°F), July 16, 2023, Saratoga Spring (California, U.S.)
7) 53.9° C (129.0°F), July 17, 1998, Furnace Creek (California, U.S.)
7) 53.9° C (129.0°F), July 19, 2005, Furnace Creek (California, U.S.)
10) 53.9° C (129.0°F), July 6, 2007, Furnace Creek (California, U.S.)
10) 53.9° C (129.0°F), July 22, 2016, Basra International Airport (Iraq)
12) 53.8° C (128.8°F), July 22, 2016, Basra-Hussen (Iraq)

As I've said before, I was once staying at my brothers place in Las Vegas, and it was 113F outside.  There was a sudden brownout.  But no problem, for we just drove to the nearest casino.  They all have their own electricity generator.  But the city on Sunday broke its all-time high by 3F degrees...120F!

I purposefully drove through Furnace Creek when the temperature was around 120F.  What worried me as we drove to the site and away was, would we be able to survive if our car broke down?

All those above numbers are air temperatures.  Here is something you might not know.
  • Surface temperatures are much hotter.
  • Using satellite data, both the Lut Desert in Iran and the Sonoran Desert along the Mexican-U.S. border reached 177.4F!!!
  • I recall when I worked in the sugar industry, a consultant showed us how to fry an egg on a pipe in the sun.
    • Eggs can be fried from 158 F and up.
    • If you try to do this on the sidewalk or asphalt, this can happen, but it will take many minutes because the heat conductivity of these materials is low.
    • In a hot summer Phoenix day, if the air temperature is 110F, the interior temperature of a car can get close to 160F.  Thus eggs should in time cook in this environment.  Here is a video of someone trying to fry an egg in Phoenix using a frying pan when the air temperature was 114F.
    • The mass of metal of a car is borderline, but here are a few from TikTok showing that this can be done.
    • If you can  find a way to keep the egg from falling off, like using aluminum foil, a large black pipe should work at a high enough air temperature.  A frying pan does not have the right conformation condition.  Hard to find a large enough square pipe.
      • Black absorbs heat.
      • Steel is an excellent conductor of heat.  You also need a mass of metal, not just some aluminum foil.
      • Certainly don't use a hot pavement to fry an egg..
      • Not sure what the lowest air temperature is to do this. 
      • At the Hutchinson Sugar Company on the Big Island of Hawaii, the temperature can get up to 90F.  I saw egg frying on a black pipe.

I'll end with another hot and gloomy item, the new horror film Longlegs, which opens tomorrow.  94 Rotten Tomatoes reviewers gave it a 91 rating.  Deals with a serial killer (Nicholas Cage), FBI agent (Maika Monroe) and occult clues, directed by Oz Perkins, oldest son of Anthony Perkins and Berry Berenson, grandson of fashion designer Elsa Schiaperelli, in the line of Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaperelli, who in 1877 described the canali of Mars.

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