Shock News–Pavements Get Hot In Summer!
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.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Phoenix reaches or exceeds 110F on average 21 days a year (Wikipedia)…..
I suppose you could say he rose from his own ashes…
It wouldn’t occur to the Guardian that warming or cooling could be natural, so some other explanation is sought. Blame humans!
I am surprised the The Guardian missed an excuse to say that global warming is partly to blame for this grisly tale but then it about poverty under “America’s dirty divide” and the article was bought in.
One wonders why he didn’t move when it started to burn.
‘fell asleep by the side of a gas station’
. . . and slept thru 3rd degree burns.
“passed out by the side of a gas station”
Fixed it.
‘He doesn’t remember much’
No $#|+, Sherlock.
‘Recent heatwaves in the US, stoked by the climate crisis, have caused a surge of heat-related injuries and deaths.’
Stoked by Budweiser, I’d bet.
This is classic Guardian argumentum ad misericordiam. Junk science. Junk sociology.
Love it!
More likely stoked by Fentanyl.
Who’d have thought that a black surface gets hot in the sun…..
I live in Houston. They even tell us to watch out when walking you dog(they can burn their pads apparently). Falling asleep in the sun here can cost you… but our humidity offers a small amount of protection versus low humidity Phoenix. He must’ve been from outta State.
He wasn’t from outta state, as Gamecock said he was outta it.
The Grauniad obviously has never noticed tar melting on roads in hot sunny weather (even in the UK). What a pathetic rag, and people (the BBC) still buy it.
All the major car companies have test facilities around Phoenix for…………… hot weather testing.
If it was below 105F we would take the day off.
Been to Phoenix a few years back and it is hot. The other problem is the water supply. With a growing population they were contemplating all sorts of measures to address this problem but basically Phoenix is in the wrong place. It’s a desert and deserts get very hot and dry.
From the story, it seems one idiot found out that laying on a radiator, and the sidewalks do get that hot, will burn you. Who’d have thought. It’s not a story. This is a story but I bet the Guardian editor wouldn’t touch it.
https://unherd.com/2023/08/the-hypocrisy-of-australias-net-zero-policy/
Riparian rights battles in the US are never ending.
In the old days, people moved to where the water was. Now, they want to take other people’s water and have it sent to them.
Worst case: the Colorado River never gets to the Gulf of California. It’s dry before it leaves Yuma. The US is totally cheating Mexico. They suck water out of Lake Mead and send it to California. California has no right to it.
Please leave water out of this. That is for another discussion. As a resident of Phoenix for over 20 years now, I’ve been told how water is going away for ever and we all will die of thirst…Yet, here we are still going along the same path as always. There are many nuances to this discussion that will take an essay to cover. So, I will leave the water discussion for another thread.
Regarding heat, this summer has not been exceptional, in my opinion. What really made it stand out was the lack of monsoon and the heat really kicking into gear the last week of June and lasting almost the entire month of July.
Our last several springs were very nice. They lasted into May and June. Typically, we would be hitting 110 by early June and last until the first week or so of July when the monsoons really kick off. However, I think we didn’t get above 110 until after June 20th or so which is late for us.
Typically, by the 4th of July, we start seeing the affects of the monsoon here in the metro area with slightly higher humidity’s that will tend to reduce the temperatures. By June 15th or so, the mountains start to see monsoon activity increase. However, we did not have that this year. It has been a poor monsoon and will be considered a very dry summer.
With the lack of moisture and clouds, temperatures were able to get high and stay there. Night time temperatures in the heart of Phoenix do not go below 95 degree during the summer and in many cases, will stay at or slightly above 100 degrees. Yet, daytime temperatures only get to into the 110’s. It is very difficult to get air temps of 120 or more.
It is hot here and the reason for the night time heat is UHI. We have grown explosively since the late 1990’s and its only getting worse. Outside the city, temperatures still drop into the 80’s at night and shoot up into the 110’s consistently.
There have been reports of unprecedented this and unprecedented that this summer. My cousin was so concerned for our safety that he texted me to see if we were still alive. The news made it sound like we were all burned to a crisp. I reassured him that we were fine and that temperatures of 112-118 were normal and common for us during the summer months. There was nothing new under the sun to report.
Has it been hot? Yes, it has. Has it been unprecedented? I don’t think so. Did we break any daily records? Sure, a few but that is to be expected. We break some every year. Did we break any all time records? No except for the streak of days above 110.
Had we had even an average monsoon, the consecutive days above 110 would not have been broken and we would have had another ho-hum summer. But anytime we get above 108 now they issue heat warnings. It hasn’t changed our behaviors. We still go outside and work, play and enjoy life. We just drink lots of water and know our limits. If you are from out of state, please do not go outside during the middle of the day and try to climb the local mountains or hike the trails. You will not last. You are not acclimated to the weather here and you can suffer greatly. However, do come and enjoy our great city. Just be prepared for heat…A dry heat.
How on earth does anyone fall asleep in such a high temperature. If any person was burning while they were asleep, they would surely wake up pretty quickly. Unless of course you were a Guardian journalist!
This is pay walled but what I can see suggest it’s another destroy the planet to save it story.
Solar farm plan may evict red squirrels
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/solar-farm-plan-may-evict-red-squirrels-06jsbrjdh
A Solar farm? In Scotland?
Must some pretty good subsidies.
I was hoping they would have put an actual temperature measurement of the pavement into the article. But it’s the Guardian … what do facts matter?
Typically, pavements don’t get hotter than 70C. Indeed, somewhere there’s some maths, showing it is impossible to get much higher. The temperature is governed by the rate of IR input and IR output, and reduced if there is any wind.
Bizarrely, I would suspect that the temperature would very marginally DECREASE with rising CO2, because the blocking effect on incoming IR. I could be wrong … but who cares.
We had a holiday that took in Phoenix over 20 years ago – the August day we arrived it was 115F in the shade and the only comfortable place to be outside was up to your neck in the pool. Fortunately the temperature falls like a stone once the sun sets and we were able to amble to a nice local restaurant for dinner.