Riding The Loop

My biking companion of the last few months has been COL Guy Gober of Tiger, GA. Next week, COL Gober and the majority of the doctors at the Combat Surgical Hospital come to the end of their three-month tours. Why do they get three months while I get six, you ask? Among other things, those docs are in the Army National Guard, while I am active duty Army. Must be nice to be a 90-day rotator.

So, yesterday the COL and I hit the 14-mile loop one last time before he heads back to GA. Al Asad temperature at launch was 111 degrees, and the wind was mild. We rode around in good time, with a mild breeze, and a lot of water in my Camelbak. Good to see COL Gober for that last time.

Now, through the magic of the internet, you can see him too.

The Debunk-inator

When I first came out to Iraq, I heard a lot of things about how hot it gets here in the July and August, with people telling me that it hits the 130s regularly, and 140s occasionally. People would quote me temperatures from their prior tours, swear that there were days in July and August that hit 145, etc. After the very modest temps that we have had in July thus far (110-115, but nothing higher than that, and it has actually cooled off a bit lately), I began to wonder if these claims of intense heat were merely exaggerations. So, I embarked on months of research, performed at our massive, 300,000-volume scientific library here on Al Asad. (Okay, actually, I looked it up on wikipedia five minutes ago. But still…)

It turns out that my suspicions were confirmed. Not only has it probably not been 145-plus degrees in Iraq, I seriously doubt that it has been 145 degrees anywhere, at least not in the past century. According to the Wikipedians, the hottest temperature on official records is 136 degrees, which occurred in Libya in 1922. Second highest? Death Valley, California hit 134 back in 1913.

Those alert readers who are skeptical of my skepticism might suggest that, as Iraq has not always had a plethora of scientists, perhaps some very high temps were not recorded. Weather Underground to the rescue! At wunderground.com, you can look up the past few years’ worth of July and August temperatures. Turns out that the peak temp in July 2007 was 118. August actually had a cooler peak at 116. 2006 was a bit cooler, peaking in the low teens.

Just to make it clear: 118 is still pretty darned hot, and the consistency of heat here is remarkable. If you look closely at the Weather Underground numbers, you’ll see that the average minimum temp in that same July 2007 was 84 degrees farenheit, which means that even in the wee hours of the morning, it’s pretty warm. And though this is a dry heat, the sun seems to bore right through me, especially during the middle of the day (10 AM to 6 PM).

But 140 degrees, it ain’t. Let’s hope it stays that way.