Those court thermometers were being distorted by localized heating, and did not correctly reflect general air temperature on the courts. The highest general air temperature ever recorded on earth was 58C in Libya in 1922.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001375.html From: Kim, Rich (ECY) Sent: 01/29/2009 8:49 AM To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:42626] RE: Hot and dry I was watching the Australian Open tennis on American TV (ESPN2), the Roddick vs. Djokovic match and they showed on-court thermometer (Celsius of course). It was at 53° most of the match; at one point it read about 62° even thought its max was 60°. It was in the direct sun. . ______________ ____ | | RICH KIM, Spatial Database Administrator \ | | | Washington State Department of Ecology, GIS | // | P.O. Box 47600, Olympia, Washington USA 98504 | * Olympia | Phone: (360) 407-6121; Fax: (360) 407-6493 \ _____| E-Mail: [email protected] `---------' http://www.ecy.wa.gov/services/gis/index.html From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Pat Naughtin Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 14:50 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:42609] Hot and dry Dear All, As you enjoy your nice crisp cool winter days, spare a thought for we folk in the southern hemisphere. In the next few days we expect the following temperatures: Tuesday 38 °C Wednesday 41 °C Thursday 40 °C Friday 40 °C Saturday 40 °C Sunday 30 °C See the article http://www.theage.com.au/national/melbourne-faces-worst-hot-spell-in-100-years-20090126-7q0c.html for the details. Melbourne is the nearest big city to Geelong. Melbourne is 70 kilometres north-east of Geelong. You might recall the rhyme: Zero is freezing, 10 is not, 20 is pleasing, 30 is hot, 40 frying, 50 dying. I don't know who wrote the first three lines but I added the last two to consider Australian conditions. We live near the coast of the Southern Ocean but 200 kilometres inland from us you can expect the predicted temperatures to be about 3 °C hotter than here. Swan Hill, for example, will reach 44 °C on Wednesday and 43 °C on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. It's amusing to see chatter in northern hemisphere media reports about 'global cooling'. You won't get much empathy for that position here in Australia as we are about to experience our second driest January in 159 years that is being topped off with this current heat wave. So far this month Geelong has had 0.4 millimetres of rain compared to a long term average of 35.6 millimetres for January. Cheers, Pat Naughtin PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com for more metrication information, contact Pat at [email protected] or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe.
