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Comment by barcoder | Hacker News Reader

I've experienced 50 degrees Celsius in the Sahara. Hard to imagine hotter.

I have experienced 50 in Multan, Pakistan many summers multiple times. It's a city though, not a desert. There are many other cities where temperatures go this high each summer.

I’ve experienced 100C in a sauna :)

It’s a lot different though, since you can exit the sauna into air that is substantially colder, you can’t escape the desert heat.

Only in the way I “experienced” 300+C by jumping through a bonfire. You never reach a true equilibrium in a Sauna that hot, but you can reach an equilibrium in 50C when the humidity is low enough.

Good point, 5 minutes at 100C is nothing like spending all day at 50C.

We used to get stuff out an oven which cars were baked in after being painted. Lots of close on an run. In hindsight, very stupid.

Reminds me of a great little story I just read about working in a brick yard in the 50s.

https://brickcollecting.com/merwin.htm

Yeah, I found some cool bricks and wondered if brick collecting was a thing.

It is - a demolition yard near me had a particular pole that weren’t for sale. The yard owner kept the best for himself.

Ones made by prisoners. One with a nice glaze etc.

Apples and Oranges. Saunas have much lower humidity, and also you are exposed for much shorter duration of time. 100C is the boiling point of water; so if you stay for an extended period, you'll probably die.

Some people who live in 50C temperatures do not have access to AC or a reliable water source.

Saunas (at least the way we enjoy them here in Finland) can be pretty humid, because we throw water on the stones of the stove. But throwing too much water can make it intolerable, and lethal if you don't follow your instinct to leave if it gets too hot.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-10904691

Normally in a sauna it's not constantly so humid that sweating wouldn't be able to keep your body temperature normal (as long as you stay hydrated). Throwing water on the stove raises the humidity just momentarily and makes you sweat at full capacity, but normally you would wait for some minutes before throwing more water.

If air is humid enough, sweating can't cool the body anymore because sweat won't evaporate, so already 35C is lethal in 100% humidity.

https://phys.org/news/2020-05-potentially-fatal-combinations...

Also the feeling of radiation. I remember experiencing 123F in death valley and the feeling of my skin just feeling weird

Are you a boiled chicken? Do saunas actually get that hot?

googles

I guess they can. Seems bonkers though.

even higher, I've been in Wi Spa in LA that gets up to 231f/110c

Sauna at my gym ranges around 200 F +/- about 10 degrees, according to the thermometer on the wall, so getting close to 100 C. I sit in it about 20 minutes after a workout. Yes I am sweating buckets by the end. It feels good though.

Dry air is a bad thermal conductor, so the body can easily deal with the hot air for a while.

It quickly gets uncomfortable when they pour water on hot stones in the sauna. Humidity really makes all the difference.

And just how much sunlight was in your sauna?

100℃? You were in boiling water temperature? How's that possible? Or did you mean to say 100°F?

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-10912578

Narh, it's 100C. Sauna can be pretty hard-core.

I've experienced 50 degrees Celsius in Las Vegas.

But then I stepped back into the air conditioning.

Vegas has never been 50C.

The record high for the city is 117 degrees Fahrenheit (47.22C) at McCarran International Airport, most recent previous to today was in June 2017, according to the National Weather Service.

The city has recorded that high temperature five times, including today.

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