From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
h/t Ian Magness
On a sunny day in mid-May, Bobby Hunt fell asleep by the side of a gas station in Phoenix. Hunt says he was waiting for a friend to pick him up.
“Next thing I know, I wake up in the hospital.”
Hunt was in a burn unit. He doesn’t remember much, just the bright lights.
“What am I doing here?” he recalled asking.
Almost three months later, Hunt stands in the empty chapel of Circle the City, the central Phoenix medical shelter for unhoused people where he’s been recuperating. He lifts his white T-shirt to reveal a lopsided, round scar the size of a medium pizza.
The burn appears to be about an inch deep, and mars the swath of intricate, black-inked tattoos of skulls and faces that once covered his back.
Below the big scar, a bandage covers another wound on his lower back. Hunt pulls the leg of his khaki shorts up to reveal a large, red rectangle where skin from his thigh was removed and grafted on to his back. He’s still in terrible pain.
Temperatures in the city of Phoenix reached at least 110F (43.3C) for 31 days in a row this summer. But even on a 98F (37C) day, like the one when Hunt was injured, sustained contact with the sidewalk can result in third degree burns – and potentially kill a person.
The Guardian seems surprised that roads can get so hot in summer. Even here you would be advised not to walk barefoot on roads when it is hot. And the fact that this injury occurred in May when temperatures reached 98F says all you need to know about this latest pathetic little story. Phoenix temperatures tend to be at that level and a lot higher pretty much all summer:
The highest temperature there this year has been 119F, well below the record of 122 set in 1990.
The daily data profile is also noteworthy, as it shows that temperatures so far this summer have only been exceptionally high for about a two-week period in July, and a handful of days this month:
Of course, if Guardian journalists understood why roads and pavements get hot in summer, they would also appreciate why urban areas get much hotter than rural ones, and that the temperatures they regularly trumpet for cities like Phoenix are not representative.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
In France the latest buzzword is: “mineral”. The talking point is: towns are too minera (hence hot)
Last I checked:
The summer of 1971 I spent in Pheonix, keeping my mum company as she watched over my dying grandfather. I was 16, a California surfer boy, and spending the summer in Pheonix was a special hell. Or it would have been except for “Big Surf” an artificial wave water park. My mom bought some kind of season pass and would drop me off every other day. It was so stinking hot, but I pretty much stay in the water riding countless crappy waves on my 5’9″ twin fin. I rescued many young kids stuck in the burning sands. I’d run from the wet sand to my blanket, scooping up any crying kid that wandered out into the blazing sand. Lots of adults and older kids did this, The sand was normal white/tan silica beach sand, Mornings and afternoons weren’t too bad but when the sun was high, be careful.