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Comment by dwedge | Hacker News Reader

The headline is a bit sensationalist. Scorched means burned not just dry, later it mentions that some of the images are scorched from wildfires, but that doesn't seem to correlate to the one shown under the headline.

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According to the Cambridge dictionary it's a perfectly normal usage of the word, in fact it's pretty much the example for it...

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/scorched

Scorched is being used correctly. Fire does not have to be involved, heat does.

In my part of the midwest scortched is correct. People say their lawn is scorched by the sun during droughts.

I'm in Europe, the sky here is literally red at night from fires we are failing to extinguish. France, Spain, UK, Belgium, Germany, Croatia, Serbia are all going through this to different degrees right now.

Not here, also in Europe, and also not in most of the satellite images they are talking about. They are mostly talking about heat damage, low rivers, and dry patches of land.

Claiming the British state broadcaster is using the English language incorrectly is certainly a choice.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/scorched

Yeah someone else posted the same link. I replied with my tail between my legs admitting I didn't know scorched had two definitions (only one being destroyed by fire) and I was downvoted to -3 so deleted it.

To be honest, yours was a fair assumption that fire should be involved for "scorched" to apply. It's probably one of the more common usages of the word

I don't agree with the people downvoting you for admitting you were wrong, that's ridiculous

The post is the BBC, scorched is the ordinary word used in British english. I agree that in American english it would be more ambiguous.

I mean what do you expect, it's BBC. I'll eat my hat the day they actually report the facts as it is without exaggeration. I wouldn't even trust BBC without verifying the sources. Most of the time it's lying at best and propaganda at worst.

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