Hot!

The latest issue of EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union, describes the use of satellite data to establish where the hottest land surface temperature (LST) on Earth is located. This is a little different than the location of the hottest air - that temperature is at 1.5 meters above the ground. Instead, this is the location of the foot-burningist surface temperature on Earth!

The 2004 (68.0 deg C: 154.4 deg F) and 2005 (70.7 deg C: 159.3 deg F), maxima were located in Iran's Lut Desert, on the Kerman Plateau, where temperatures get so hot that even bacteria can't survive.

But the 2003 maximum (69.3 deg C: 156.7 deg F) was located in Queensland, Australia, where I'm going in a week!

Looking at a map, the maximum Australian point seems to be in the upper regions of the Flinders River or the Diamantina watersheds, somewhere NW of Winton. The Flinders River drains into the Gulf of Carpenteria: the Diamantina drains into the interior. Pretty far from the ocean, and far from where I'm going, but still, I'm mystified why the maximum isn't farther west, at lower elevations, in the Simpson Desert, the Gibson Desert, the Great Victoria Desert, or in many other deserving locations in Australia. Maybe because the location is a little more tropical than the other places?

Oh well! Hot is hot! These temperatures make me yearn for summertime Death Valley, where at least bacteria are welcome!

I wonder whether bacteria can tough it out in Australia? Do Down-Under bacteria beat Persian bacteria?