Triple digits

At 3:04 p.m. on Friday, June 29, we were at 101 and the start of what was forecast to be a four-day run of 100-plus-degree days. (Click image to up-rez the screenshot.)

I used to think that the hottest place on earth was Columbia, South Carolina, but I was mistaken. That title goes to the Lut Desert in Iran where the highest temperature ever recorded was 159 degrees Fahrenheit.

I can’t even imagine.

Notwithstanding the fact that nothing actually lives in the Lut Desert (It’s an abiotic salt flat.), our just-ended string of triple digit days was autumnal by comparison.

Plenty of people do live in Death Valley, California and Phoenix, Arizona, however. Their summer temperatures routinely exceed 120 degrees.

So I thought of those people — and of the salty Lut — when my weather gadget told me on Sunday that the air outside had reached 107.

And I took no heart in the comparison.

None.