For the Record

Slate's "Explainer" David Sessions, answers your question about the news. Today he set out to debunk John McCain:

Yesterday, John McCain told supporters in Iowa that U.S. soldiers are "carrying 40 pounds of body armor in 130-degree temperatures."

...the highest temperature ever recorded in Asia is 124 degrees—in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. So, how hot does it really get in Iraq?

The temperature never breaks 130 degrees, according to official climate records. A 2007 Air Force Weather Agency report on Iraq's summer weather also marks the record at 124 degrees, with mean highs for July and August at 110 degrees. And Iraq is always dry, so the heat index won't be much higher than the actual temperature.

Jeff Emmanuel waves a BS flag, arguing (as near as I can tell) that

a. Humidity is sufficient to cause a heat index higher than the temperature
and
b.

"A soldier in 40-50 lbs of armor AND ammo AND long sleeves and pants AND helmet AND gloves AND knee pads AND boots who is carrying a rifle AND carrying 10 lbs of water IS "a solid object." Furthermore, said soldier DOES operate on "heat-conducting surfaces like sand, concrete, or asphalt," NOT "in a ventilated location" -- oh, and is either standing or moving while doing so, as well."

The effective temperature to a soldier here is much more like 145-150 degrees during the peak of summer -- not 130 or 124.

There's also a discussion of cheap thermometers poorly placed, yadda yadda yadda. Disregard that for now, while I provide the actual solution, and make left and right happy in this instance and we can all go forward and live together as one, in harmony. It's a simple explanation, trust me on this one...

Official temperature is taken IN THE SHADE, using very damned expensive equipment. Official temperatures for Baghdad (taken by US Air Force meteorologists at the Airport in the shade) in late July and early August peak in the late afternoon between 115-120 EVERY DAY - IN THE SHADE. The record temperature in the shade is indeed 124 degrees. Now that September is here it's a bit more variable, highs ranging from as low as 102 to about 108 over the past week or two. In the early morning hours we shiver as the temperatures plunge into the upper 70s.

Did I mention the shade part? Out in the desert or the middle of a city in the direct sunlight in July? Or in the back of a closed vehicle or an aircraft? There it's really hot, and 130 on a cool day, maybe.

But here's what I call hot: when you step out of a porta potty after a 5 minute visit into the direct sunlight of a July afternoon in Iraq and think "gosh it's nice and cool out here" - then you know that inside that porta potty was the HOTTEST EFFING PLACE ON THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH.

Anyhow, in case I wasn't clear, Jeff is right in saying Slate's "Explainer" is wrong - but now you know the rest of the story.

Like I said, trust me on this one. (Stupid people will argue, folks who know me will laugh...)

A final thought: 120 degrees is HOT. Wear armor and run a few miles in it and we can talk about hot. In fact, 110 is HOT. Hell, three days of temperatures around 100 in any city in America will kill a certain percentage of the popultion. Still, if anyone can explain why it's so important to prove that soldiers aren't really experiencing anything hotter than 120, be my guest. Maybe that's a question best left to the Explainer.

And another update:

UPDATE: As much as I hate adding to something after claiming "a final thought" - it just occured to me that maybe, just maybe, this is a lesson in why one shouldn't attempt to draw conclusions from studies of Iraq done in America based purely on statistics...