You asking me to get my head around that is like me asking you to go to the pub sur.

shall we discuss Kelvin
273 and 373

Coldest...hmm. Well I was in the Russian far east once in November. It was about minus 15 on the thermometer and the wind was absolutely howling, so god knows what the wind chill was. Either way, you didn't want to be outside too long. Mind you, there were some small stocky guys at the station who looked like Genghis Khan's rearguard and were sitting around waiting for their train and looking comfortable in their slip on shoes and leather jackets...

Heat..well, ditto some of the posters up thread. The valley of the kings was a pretty extreme experience. I'd say it was in the high 30's or low 40's deg.C. The shade, if you could find it, offered some respite.
But for sheer bloody discomfort I'd have to say Kyoto in August. It's hot as hell every year, but one year in particular I was there and the temperature on the thermometer was 38 degrees C. and the humidity was absolutely terrible. Because I was there for work I was in a bloody suit. (The people I worked for then were old school and insisted on full suit, shirt and tie year round.)
The concrete and glass just magnified it all, the walls and road surfaces were just radiating heat.I was pissing wet with sweat 20 seconds after leaving the air conditioning.

I am what is termed in Japanese　暑がり(Atsugari) meaning a person who feels hot easily.
Last night it was about 5 deg C in Osaka but the train was really overheated. So, even though I had a sweater, it was in my bag and I was wearing a short sleeved shirt.
As I was walking down the street, people were commenting to each other about my lack of sense in coming out so badly dressed. Some of them were so wrapped up that all they needed was a helmet and they could have walked around on Mars!

In summer, when I leave an air conditioned building I heat up almost immediately. Within a minute I am sweating buckets.
In winter, when I leave a heated environment I remain more or less warm for a good 20-30 minutes as long as I am walking around at a brisk pace.

This brings us to another point..what does one consider a comfortable temperature? For me, I'm more or less OK at anything between 15 C and 25 C. If I'm moving around, then down to about 10 or maybe even a little bit lower is still generally comfortable.

Some people I know seem to have a really narrow range of comfort. High teens to low 20's is their range.
Every year, as autumn approaches, I start seeing scarves and gloves on trains in the morning while the temperature is still in the mid teens C!

Plenty of 45°C days; Adelaide summers can get quite unpleasant at times.

I've dealt with 45+C (kill me) as well as -40C. I'm much better in the cold than the heat.

Queen of the Atsugari here.

I've had a 48C in the Kruger Park one December and -23C in Cervinia, Italy d a ski trip at 3200m during a blizzard. My old mechanical tape type video camera froze after 5 seconds when I tried using it.

BlackBart wrote:

monkeyboy wrote:Hottest - Hepsatshut's temple in Egypt in 2008 110F 43C We went all round Valley of the Kings, Karnak temple and a few other places. I drank around 12litres of water during the day and pissed once.

Snap. Experienced about 40 degrees at Hepsatshut's temple. It seems to be in a sun trap - as soon as you walked inside the temple, it was chilly.

We were there just before midday, in the sun, particularly on the top tier with the cliffs and walls all around reflecting the sun and keeping wind out it was like a furnace. All I could think of after a bit was the air conditioned minivan and it's cool box of water. Shame, because it's a truly magnificent place.

The coldest I got was -21 °C. It was in my first years in the Army, and I was out that night for an exercise, and we ended up sleeping in the tent. The French Army wasn't very well equiped for those temperatures at that time.
The hottest was 45 °C, on holidays in Valencia, Spain. part of my father's family lives (lived) there.

It's 14f/-10 c, and I just saw a guy in town wearing shorts. I own a pair of shorts in the same style and brand. They've been packed away since the beginning of October.

Naturally occurring temperatures; Hottest definitely in Sudan with it going over 50c regularly and the radiant heat made your clothes feel hot to touch. But have worked in industrial extremes, stocktaking in -20c freezers, which was tolerable with the blowers off and sheepskin 'Eskimo' suit, and handling glass straight from a furnace on a furnace start up, where the floor so hot we had to wear special boots to stop the soles melting and worked 3 minutes on 30 minutes off even with protective clothing.. Ugh, that was terrible.

Coldest: a walk-in freezer in the kitchen of the J.G. Strijdom Hospital, Jhb. It was about -20°C. Once had to go searching in there (sans jacket or jersey) for a misplaced, unmarked consignment of meat. Fortunately, I found it within a minute or so.

Hottest: 42°C at Walmanstal (just outside Pretoria) as a Defense Force conscript in 1992.


I wonder...
What would happen if one were to take an iron girder that had been outside in, say, -50°C weather for a few hours, and plunge it into a large vat of boiling water (~100°C). Would the outer surface of the iron expand more quickly than the rate of heat conduction to the core? Would the temp differential be enough to cause fissures / cracks in the metal?

Coldest probably around -10C, hottest maybe 45C

I am comfortable from 10 if moving to around 30 sitting. I am very intolerant of heat or movement if wearing anything more than light clothing. I can be comfortable sitting in a pair of shorts only in winter at home around 15C where everyone else is bundled up, but uncomfortably hot at 20C wearing 2 layers of clothes where others are turning up the heat.
Anything under 20 can have Durban people shivering, which I find ridiculous.

The_Piper wrote:It's 14f/-10 c, and I just saw a guy in town wearing shorts. I own a pair of shorts in the same style and brand. They've been packed away since the beginning of October.

Liverpudlians love wandering around in sub-zero temperatures sporting a pair of shorts. I don’t know why, but just in work, I saw 3 individuals who came to their sessions with bare legs.

This one time, I set the hotel suite thermostat to 19 ℃ (66 ℉), when the recommended setting was 23 ℃ (73 ℉).

Coldest walking in the Cairngorms -25C in January at 1200 metres. Warmest a Finnish sauna 130C 3% humidity. Just throw a ladle of water on the stove and die.

Fallible wrote:

The_Piper wrote:It's 14f/-10 c, and I just saw a guy in town wearing shorts. I own a pair of shorts in the same style and brand. They've been packed away since the beginning of October.

Liverpudlians love wandering around in sub-zero temperatures sporting a pair of shorts. I don’t know why, but just in work, I saw 3 individuals who came to their sessions with bare legs.

What's up with these people? Maybe it's high blood pressure.
There were always one or two like that in Boston, but not something you see every time. Except for mostly professional working women, some of who still wore their skirts and high heels in the coldest snaps of the year.
Up here it's less common to see shorts and skirts in winter, but I see people here and there wearing sweatshirts and light jackets in 0f/-17c weather pretty regularly. I'll be in a snowsuit and visibly more uncomfortable than these people.

So, this isn’t you then?




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