I have just been reading about Death Valley in California. It has just set a new record for the highest recorded temperature on earth of 54.4 deg C.
I used to live in Africa many years ago so used to temperatures in the mid 40's, but 54.4 deg C is unbelievable.
As a matter of interest any US members been there? and during the summer? and in a p38?
i thought the hottest was 56 something in the 30s . they are disputing it. as they couldn't read a thermometer properly back then
Very hot, but also no humidity. When I worked in the WA desert surveying, two of us would drink 20 litres a day between us, never seemed to sweat, although your shirt was white with salt. When you got back to camp, you would drink, and keep on drinking until you had to pee, and that, and first thing in the morning were the only times you would go all day ... after drinking perhaps 12 or so litres of liquid.
I've been there in the summer :) Back in 2007 though.
I can't remember how hot it was on the day - but for someone that doesn't like it too hot, I remember it was oddly not uncomfortable, because it was so dry.
Total opposite when I was in Malaysia, 22 degrees so you'd expect it to be comfortably warm but the humidity was so high that the moment you emerged from somewhere with air conditioning, your lungs stopped working and you were covered in sweat. Drank water by the gallon but never needed to find a toilet.....
Mad-as: I believe it is the highest verifiable temperature. There is some doubt over the accuracy of earlier readings.
I worked on a copper mine in Zambia in the '70's. In the summer it was easily mid 40's but a dry heat outside of the rainy season. I learn't to cover up in the sun. Long sleeved shirt, wide brimmed hat, etc.
Later I lived in Durban, South Africa. It reached 40 deg C in the summer but 100% humidity. It was very uncomfortable.
I just wondered if anyone on here had driven to Death Valley in a p38. How did it perform? Did it overheat? Did the aircon keep up?
If anyone did I will buy them a cold beer. (collection only).
Yes, I have been in Death Valley in summer and it was hotter than hell, not in a P38 though but I did have a Jeep with A/C; It is not called Furnace Creek for nothing.... Whilst I was tempted to go 'off piste' I was told later the baked earth is ' much less stable than it looks '....
Visited Kitwe once.and enjoyed that 'dry heat' there too; A/C in the Hotel was broken, as was I !!
PS: On reflection I would not actually trust my 'go anywhere' P38 to travel through Death Valley in Summer, working A/C or not....
I was in Chingola, about an hour away from Kitwe.
Didn't get there but went to Ndola; All crazy places, everything very cheap.... including life itself: (ie. 'heat' of a different kind)
DC3 back to Lusaka ... then wearing the obligatory Big Hat all the way back to LHR ! .
If you left in a DC3 it must have been pretty hardcore!
I flew on a DC3 as well. From capital, Lusaka up to the copper belt.
The plane was an old crate. I remember being buffeted by the wind and all the luggage falling out of the overhead racks.
The door at the front into the pilots cabin kept slamming open and closed and I found out that it was being piloted by a local black guy who was having a flying lesson by an expatriot white guy who looked half pissed.
The plane suddenly dropped like a stone and we landed on a grass strip after bouncing several times.
From the sounds of it Dave I may have been on that same DC3 ! Air Zambia/Kamikaze...?... I remember 'walking uphill' to my seat, and how many passengers were smoking pipes... nervously... I think you actually have to go there to realise how 'Wild' Africa really is....
In fact I did not see any RRs there though, just lots of Toyotas, mainly Land Cruisers of course (some with bullet holes right through them too; Road Bandits !). It's probably just the same now....