• Question: What is the hottest temperature you have recorded in degrees Celsius

    Asked by anon-257446 on 22 Jun 2020.
    • Photo: Gareth Mason

      Gareth Mason answered on 22 Jun 2020:

      It wasn’t a scientifically accurate thermometer but the hottest temperature I have experienced was on a forestry exchange trip to Cyprus, in October 2016, and one day it reached 48˚C. That was extreme for someone from Scotland! I am sure there will be a lab or geological scientist who has measured some far more extreme temps than that though 🙂

    • Photo: Peter Bentham

      Peter Bentham answered on 23 Jun 2020:

      Personally I experienced temperatures of just over 50˚C when I was living in Egypt and visiting the ancient monuments near to Aswan. I left my rucksack in the sun for a few minutes and the credit card in my wallet actually started melting!!

      But Jack – don’t just think about the hottest temperatures anywhere, consider the changes we are observing at different places around the globe. I was shocked to read just yesterday that a town in the Arctic Circle in Siberia experienced around 38˚C (100˚F) over the weekend. That’s 18˚C hotter than the normal June temperature and the highest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic!

    • Photo: Maryam Masood

      Maryam Masood answered on 23 Jun 2020:

      My experience of higher temperature are more personal ones than work ones. I have lived in Lahore, Pakistan for the first 24 years of my life so have very frequently experienced temperatures of upto 48 degree C. If you are under the direct sunlight, it feels like the sunrays are piercing through your skin.

      As Peter has very well explained, the more worrying fact is the overall change around the globe.

    • Photo: Emma Markham

      Emma Markham answered on 24 Jun 2020:

      The hottest temperature I have experiences was during a heatwave in Australia, where it went above 50c and the weather forecast had to make a new colour for that temperature. I have also lived in Ghana in Africa for a while, and everyday would around 40c and really really humid. You could not walk or do any activity as it was too hot to breathe and sleeping was hard.
      Obviously, if you grow up in that climate you are better adapted and it becomes normal, but as it was a sudden change for me it was difficult to cope with. One of the challenges of global warming is that the temperature is increasing so rapidly that species do not have time to adapt to cope with the change.

    • Photo: Emma Thorpe

      Emma Thorpe answered on 24 Jun 2020:

      I work with some furnaces to test how much material is lost when soil samples are ignited – it can help tell you how much of the soil is made up of carbon containing material. They go up to 550 degrees C, and we have to check it has reached the right temperature before the samples are done. We have special tongs and silvery reflective gloves to wear when getting the samples out as they are very hot. But other people testing mineral samples in furnaces will use much hotter furnaces over 1000 degrees C, and they have to wear special suits to protect themselves.

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