Most people living on Earth today will never experience the type of heat observed at Iran’s Persian Gulf International Airport on Sunday.
A rare combination of extremely high temperatures and abundant atmospheric moisture created oppressive heat along the southern coastline of Iran on Sunday, July 16.
While air temperature observations give us a good idea about how hot it is outside, other elements like wind and humidity also affect how hot the weather feels to our bodies. In general, windy weather makes us feel cooler and humid weather makes us feel hotter.
Meteorologists can estimate how hot or cold the weather feels by using equations that factor in air temperature and other atmospheric variables. One of the most widely-used methods for estimating the impacts of hot weather is called the ‘heat index’, which combines air temperature and humidity.
Image: Heat Index chart used by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Source: NOAA
On Sunday,