What is the warmest temp you have ever been in

[aslkahuna]

Yep, gotta love that dry heat-it's sort of like an oven set at 450 degrees. With humid heat you suffer, with dry heat you may not know it's killing you until you die from dehydration.

Steve

[LocoAko]

105F here in New Brunswick this past summer.

[michsnowfreak]

Hottest would probably be 104F on 6-25-88 (per DTW) but i dont remember it, I was only 5 (though i do remember grass fire starting in front of my eyes in '88). Hottest I remember was a horrible day in St Louis in July 2006. A friend and I were in town there for 4 days on some business, and it was like 103 with a heat index of 115. I remember opening the hotel door and it felt like a blast furnace. I hated it.

[ravensrule]

114 degrees this September 27th in Los Angeles.

[Fozz]

Probably 110 with lots of humidity.

[wishforsnow]

One in the summer of 1988 the bank thermometer in downtown Colfax, Iowa read 120 f. But those things are painted black so they aren't too accurate. It was very hot though, but not humid. We had dry heat all that summer which is rare for Iowa. The municipal swimming pool was packed that day.

[Msalgado]

I don't know the exact reading, but growing up in South Texas I remember a particular August day in my teens when it was over 105 (107 keeps popping into my head) and I enjoyed playing basketball that day. Although it was technically hotter, having a very dry airmass in place of the usual 70 degree dew points made it feel far more comfortable.

[will]

I've had my hand in a brick oven while cooking a pizza, so I'm going to guess around 850 degrees.

[RutgersWx92]

We took a vacation out West back in the summer of 2007 and we just happened to be in Las Vegas when they were in a record-breaking heat wave. The temperature got up to 116 on the first day and 115 the next day. At least it was a dry heat, but it was still quite brutal.

[soadforecaster]

118 in vegas

[Brianonymous]

I floated down the Salt River in a tube, near Scottsdale Arizona in 111F.. I had never, EVER, had that bad of a sunburn in my life. Couldnt even walk because my ankles swelled up.

[MN Transplant]

107 in Southern MN in '88.

[Stormpc]

Temps in the low 100's (102-103 range) with low 80's dp in Bangkok, Thailand in April 2008. Absolutely brutal.

[Bluescat1]

105F here in New Brunswick this past summer.

I remember that day, it was in my top category for heat, "Hot as Balls"

[marsman]

112F in Doha, Qatar. Ridiculous humidity, too - the kind you definitely feel when walking outside.

Slimy, salty, 85F water in the Persian Gulf didn't help me cool down much.

[tamarack]

Never been to the real oven-like parts of the US, so my hottest is just a bit over 100, with 2 real choices:

7/3/1966: NYC hit 103, La Guardia 107. I was working behind the counter at Curtiss-Wright's lakeside resort in NNJ, and the gas griddles we used had the place so hot we could no longer toast the burger/dog rolls - they went straight to black. There was a cheapie dial thermometer on the side of the opening to the main room, perhaps 10' from the griddles. Its scale stopped at 120 but the needle had turned about 1/8 circle past that, at least to 150. What it was 3' from the griddles where we worked, I was happier not knowing.

8/2/1975, "Hot Saturday" for New England: BGR (then my home) reached 102 and BHB (which we visited that day) made it to 101 right on the water, their highest ever temp by 5F. Dews were about 70, IIRC. We spent the morning picking blueberries in Gouldsboro, those who were stupid enough (me) or sufficiently acclimated (my Hawaiian sis-in-law who grew up in the pineapple fields) to try. I think sprinkling suger on the berries would have made jam right there in the field.

[NorthShoreWx]

110 in Long Beach, CA - Labor Day 1988

[JCT777]

It was 105 last summer on an August day when I was at an outdoor wedding in northern Virginia. But it didn't feel quite as hot as back in July of 1995 when I was in Ocean City MD. Temps were around 100 (never got a sea breeze that day) and the heat index was around 120. It's the closest I came to passing out from the heat.

[pazzo83]

~140 F, Harold Square subway station, July 2010.

[will]

Are you guys serious that you've never put your arm in an oven?

[aslkahuna]

I floated down the Salt River in a tube, near Scottsdale Arizona in 111F.. I had never, EVER, had that bad of a sunburn in my life. Couldnt even walk because my ankles swelled up.

There was a case of a woman dying from severe sunburn burns in Phoenix in the 1990's. That's why you see outdoor workers wearing long sleeved shirts and hats in the Desert during the hot season.

Steve

[tacoman25]

118 in vegas

Las Vegas' all-time record high is 117... well, that's the airport. Downtown is 118, but that's from 1931.

[joe1946]

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[CSt6804]

120 F Doha Qatar. "official" temps were around 112 to 115, but thermometers on the flightline regularly exceeded 125. The point and shoot electronic thermometers would measure temps on the wing of a C-130 sitting in the sun at 165 to 170. Too hot to sit on to work on the planes. The humidity was also rediculous especially at night. This was an everyday thing for the entire friggin summer that I was there. The construction workers there, locals, dressed from head to toe. Their heads were covered as well. I don't honestly know how people can live there.

[sunnykay]

Not at National Airport -- actually observed in NW Washington, near the Montgomery County line, where I was staying at the time. We read 107 on a good thermometer a little after noon on the hottest day, so we assumed it went a couple of degrees higher later in the afternoon. Perhaps it didn't.

The point was, it was well over 100 degress one day, the next day it was several degrees less (but still over 100) and I noticed that it was cooler.

Yes there can be quite a difference between "official" D.C. temperatures at National Airport, and temps observed at other locations in the D.C. metro area; sometimes this difference can be substantial. And yes, D.C. is beastly when it gets into the mid-90s and up. The heat and humidity just hits you in the face and leaves you dripping. Great fun if you are trying to look presentable.

Having spent ~50 years in my hometown of Washington, D.C./Montgomery County,, I would have to challenge that. Though I've no stats in front of me, my memory of D.C. weather is pretty good, and I believe the record high there is 109F having occurred only once during the 1930s.

Since the early 1950s in D.C. I've seen plenty of 105s, a few 106s and perhaps a super-rare 107 to 108 but nothing beyond that. The most stunning heat wave I recall was one back in the 1960s with many consecutive days over 100F.

If there's a met or statistician out there watching; please feel free to chime in.

All the above is of course based on National Airport temperatures; moderated by the Potomac River (both winter and summer.) The highest extreme temps in the metro area seem to be in the exurbs, out towards the lee of the mountains. Frederick Maryland, smaller, higher, and northwest of D.C. gets both colder in winter and hotter in summer; surely related to those nearby mountains.

Whatever the case, metro D.C. with its nasty humidity is insufferable when the temperature climbs above 100F, and going outside at 105F+ is sheer torture.

[showmethesnow]

Not sure of the temperature but about 30 years ago remember driving through Death Valley with my father when they were setting records for high temps. It was a very dry and oppressive heat and I remember having problems with sticking to the vinyl seats in the car. Not a fun experience at all.

[MJW155]

There was a case of a woman dying from severe sunburn burns in Phoenix in the 1990's. That's why you see outdoor workers wearing long sleeved shirts and hats in the Desert during the hot season.

Steve

You see that in Florida too. It actually keeps the workers cooler.

[Brianonymous]

There was a case of a woman dying from severe sunburn burns in Phoenix in the 1990's. That's why you see outdoor workers wearing long sleeved shirts and hats in the Desert during the hot season.

Steve

That is interesting, because I want to say this was around August 1995/96... Arizona in August for a visit - genius idea, huh? I remember hearing on the news there that it was the hottest place in America that day.. I did the egg on the sidewalk cooking just for jollies, being an east coasty and all. I remember walking around the neighborhood with my camcorder, and it felt like my camcorder was going to melt in my hands.

All that said - I still *love* Arizona..

[Isotherm]

115 in Phoenix late June 2007.

[DC Wuff]

122 in Vegas (according to the car thermometer when we parked IN THE SHADE in the Stratosphere parking deck) in July 2009.

As many have said, that is nowhere near as uncomfortable as DC when it tops 100 in August.