# Highest Termperature Ever Recorded In Iraq **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 29, 2010, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-termperature-ever-recorded-in-iraq/565666 "2010-12-29T00:31:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-termperature-ever-recorded-in-iraq/565666/41 "2014-08-29T04:24:21Z")
How do soldiers in thick body armor and uniforms in 125 Fahrenheit not die of heatstroke! ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-termperature-ever-recorded-in-iraq/565666/42 "2014-08-29T04:45:36Z")
> [@safety\_officer](#): > > This debate is so old…but let’s go through it again and see if we can all agree on some fundamentals. > > First off, please look at the photos in the link provided below. The photos show the temperature taken with a NIST calibrated handheld laser temperature gun in Tikrit, Iraq. > > These show pictures of the temperature: 1) in the shade 2) in the sun and 3) inside a vehicle. The associated temperatures are 120F, 139F and 159F, respectively. > > Now this brings up the whole argument of what is the actual temperature. The simple answer is that the temperature is 120, 139 and 159. Why? Because that is what it IS at that location! If you put your hand on the sand that is what you will feel? Enough of the argument that “the true temperature is not that”… Hogwash! If you put your hand on the steering wheel and it burns you then that is the temperature! Who cares if the “official” recorded temperature inside a shed is lower? If you are walking on sand that is 139F do your boots magically cool off to the official temperature somehow? Of course not. > > BTW, I would setup actual weather stations and the dry temp, wet bulb temp & temperature in the shade were, although nice to know, mostly unimportant after 10 am as that was when the situation turned into a BLACK flag almost anywhere. > > Anyway, just a bit annoyed hearing people complain and say that the “official” temperature was much lower especially when they cite errors in the equipment used as justification. Practically, anything over 120 becomes all the same in the effects it has on those who are experiencing it. > [http://s1368.photobucket.com/user/safety\_officer/library/](http://s1368.photobucket.com/user/safety_officer/library/) That’s an infrared temperature sensor. It tells the temperature of the surface it’s pointed at, not the air. What that photo shows is that the pavement in the shade is 120°, the pavement in the sun is 139°, and the black vinyl dashboard of the vehicle is 159°. But they’re not air temperatures. The shaded pavement _could be_ indicative of the air temperature, assuming that it wasn’t sitting in the sun before the reading was taken. Not coincidentally, that’s the reading that’s closest to the official temperature readings. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-termperature-ever-recorded-in-iraq/565666/43 "2014-08-29T04:54:39Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > How do soldiers in thick body armor and uniforms in 125 Fahrenheit not die of heatstroke! Lots of hydration, this from a report in the beginning of the occupation. Iraqis were amazed to see the GI’s and Marines, in full armor patroling in the height of the summer. Declan ---
**Author:** ![Jman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jman/32/4416_2.png) [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-termperature-ever-recorded-in-iraq/565666/44 "2014-08-29T14:25:41Z")
I used to call BS on this stuff when I was deployed. I was in Kuwait, and left in early June. The hottest I saw was 116 on one day. We had regular highs in the 110 range, and lows in the mid-90s, so it was darn hot, but I was working on the port on the Gulf, and a few people would set up a temperature station for wet/dry bulb temperatures and they’d do it in the sun on the port pier pavement. These would spike over 125 easily, but the air temp was definitely not that hot. As to hydration…TONS of water. We had unlimited access to giant coolers filled with 1.5L bottles of water, plus some Gatorade and pop from time to time. On a regular day, I’d probably drink 6 of the 1.5L bottles, plus several other beverages each day (and I was doing mostly admin work overseeing port operations, so not heavy labor), and I’d generally only go to the bathroom 2-3 times. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-termperature-ever-recorded-in-iraq/565666/45 "2014-08-29T16:48:06Z")
Reports from US servicemen are fallacious, that the temperature and humidity are both 100. This is impossible. The highest dewpoint ever recorded on earth is 95, and the humidity can only be 100% then if the temperature is 95. There are many days when the humidity is 100% early in the morning, but when the temperature rises above the dewpoint, the humidity falls rapidly below 100%. By the time the temperature reaches about 120, the humidity willl have fallen into maybe the 30-40% range. Those high dewpoints in the 90’s occur occasionally in Iraq, but only along the Persian Gulf lowlands. It is incredibly “tacky”-feeling when the dewpoint is in the 90s. When the dewpoint and temperature are the same, no perspiration evaporates, even in a breeze. I experienced such a condition on the coast of Saudi Arabia late one afternoon, I was driving in the desert with no shade in a car without AC, and it was literally like being in a steambath fully clothed while outdoors exposed to solar heating. ---
**Author:** ![sara20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e79b87/32.png) [@sara20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sara20)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-termperature-ever-recorded-in-iraq/565666/46 "2014-08-30T13:48:01Z")
> [@Ronald\_C.Semone](#): > > My nephew recently returned from a six-month tour in Iraq. He said the termperature routinely reached the 130s F, with the highest during that period being 146 F. This is in line with what friends of mine who grew up in Iraq have said, that the temperature often reaches into the 130s F. Yet according to Wikipedia the highest termperature ever recorded in Iraq was 125.7 F in Basra on June 14, 2010. Any thoughts on the discrepency? I think some people just like to exaggerate. I had a friend in boston who called me once and said it was 100 there. I looked it up on [weather.com](http://weather.com) and it was 86. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-termperature-ever-recorded-in-iraq/565666/47 "2014-08-30T14:01:41Z")
> [@safety\_officer](#): > > This debate is so old…but let’s go through it again and see if we can all agree on some fundamentals. . . .] Not only is it old, but the OP died several years ago. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-termperature-ever-recorded-in-iraq/565666.md?page=2)