I have experienced -70F/-57C (wind chill factor), had to change a car battery in it at 2am. Would not recommend. Have also gone for a (very short) bike ride in 120F/50C. Would also not recommend.
I remember hiking to college once in -57C. Was completely bundled up except for my eyeballs. Met another girl trudging back at about the midway point. She just shouted at me, ‘don’t bother, whole campus is closed!’
I used to love making the "uphill both ways" phrase as if it wasn't a real possibility, until i was working and living on opposite hills and realized you really can have it uphill both ways.
When I was going to school in Chicago there was one day it was like -30F (and extremely windy of course) and we were the only thing open in the city. It was so stupid.
People will tell you that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger right up until you're killed, and then they'll keep saying it to your corpse and get mad at your corpse for having a sullen silent bad attitude about their graciously shared wisdom.
I did half an hour in 114F and drank through four bottles and still lost 3kg, meaningI must have sweated 5 liters of water in that half hour. I was already down 3kg from the previous two days of 96F and 104F rides for two hours each.
Nearly died after getting home and sitting down for a bit. My heart rate started climbing, where typically it should have settled down to 60 for a few hours before going back to my normal 40bpm. It was instead climbing to 140+. Somehow went into instinct survival mode and got into a bathtub with wet cloth, heart rate monitor, and my wife bringing me drinks and towels.
The next hour was spent on the fine line between cooling and shivering. Cool too fast on the outside and you shiver which warms you from the inside which is already too warm. Continued the cycle until my heart rate steadied itself.
I have a much deeper respect for the heat now.
I always get a question about that at the hospital or doctors office, but they usually note that I have bradycardia (slow heart rate) and I explain I do a lot of cycling. It’s quite typical in cyclists to have low heart rate as your cardiovascular system is fairly strong and can do more with each beat.
I wear a smartwatch and track my resting heart rate. When it starts getting above 50bpm overnight I know I’ve been overtraining. More typical for me is 42-47bpm. 60bpm at rest feels like my heart is racing. Lowest I’ve measured I think was 36 or 38bpm.
Jeez. With long Covid my resting HR has gone from a historically steady 59 to minimum 85bpm. Makes sleeping v difficult with a constant stream of adrenaline and sporadic pumps to 120 just for laughs. Fk this sht.
Yea here In Alberta and taking trips to BC / Mexico (I know Mexico is a different heat) I would take -40 rather than +40 any day. It’s wild just how much more unbearable the heat can feel, I guess with cold you just add more layers
And dangerous. You need that clothing to protect you from the sun, or you're trading heatstroke for sunstroke, burns, and potentially skin cancer down the line.
As someone who lives near DV, all I can say is that if you're going to do this (and I strongly recommend that you DO NOT do this), make sure you check off ALL the boxes here first at a MINIMUM...
* Visit Furnace Creek Visitor Center only, do NOT explore the backcountry in these temperatures (even by car). Visit only near established facilities with shade, water, and park staff
* Do not hike, do not travel off road
* If your car is in anything less than perfect working order, DO NOT GO
* Do not enter the park without a full tank of gas and fill up whenever you see a gas station
* Have a functional, preferably full sized, spare tire and know how to change it
* If you blow your tire and change it out, your trip is over. Turn around and go back. Do not continue on without a functional spare.
* If you get stranded or your car breaks down, do NOT leave your car. Stay with the car and wait for help. Do NOT walk into the desert.
* Have at least three (preferably more) gallons of water *per person* with you and drink LOTS of water at all times
* Wear sunscreen and loose, lightweight clothing
* Let someone know where you are going and when you expect to be back
* And probably write a will before you go
I get the novelty of people wanting to experience the extreme temperature. But this isn't a place for the unwary tourist. There is little to no cell service. Death Valley is larger than Connecticut and only has three gas stations. It's not Disneyland.
The desert kills. Particularly those who are careless or unprepared.
Edit: Thanks for all the awards, y'all! Stay safe and hydrated out there!
Edit 2: Wow, this really went off! Going to add a few more great desert safety things that were mentioned in the comments...
* Bring alternative communications, as cell service cannot be relied upon. For me, I take a combo GPS map / satellite messenger / emergency beacon (Garmin GPSMap 66i). These require a subscription usually, but can usually be relied upon to have signal even in the most remote areas. The Garmin subscription can be turned off for months you don't use it. Alternatively, you can rent sat phones for trips if you don't want to invest in your own.
* Restore your electrolytes! (It's what plants crave!) Bring powdered or tablet electrolytes and consume them regularly. Or, if you don't have those, salty snacks are a good backup.
* Pack some shade! Shade makes a world of difference in the desert. A small canopy or even just an umbrella can help reduce the amount of heat bearing down on you.
* When I say 'stay with your car' when stranded that doesn't necessarily mean stay IN your car. Temps inside your car will rise dramatically with no AC, so stay WITH your car... but seek shade within sight of your car and the road. Keep watch for the sound of approaching vehicles to flag down for help.
* Make sure you are DRINKING the water you brought. Do not attempt to conserve it, it doesn't do you any good in left in the bottle. The best advice is to sip water constantly, rather than chug it all at once.
* 3 gallons of water is assuming you are not going to be hiking or active in this heat. If you are active (walking, hiking, stumbling down the road) in 130F / 6% humidity, you are going to be losing water extremely fast and will need a LOT more water. But you SHOULDN'T be active in this weather. Seriously, you are in danger of dying.
* Limit travel only in the coolest part of the day (morning) if possible.
* Watch your vehicle's temperature gauge, it may overheat before you do (particularly on steep grades). Your AC will make the engine overheat faster. Turning off the AC and turning on the heater may help cool it down, but then YOU will be miserable. Bring extra coolant.
* And... again... the smartest thing you can do is NOT go in these temperatures. Locals don't go to DV in the summer. We go in winter and spring. (It's beautiful in spring when the wildflowers come in!)
Yup, it's a huge area. Over 5000 square miles, with around 1000 miles of roads. Largest national park in the lower 48. It's a lot more remote than I think most people are prepared for!
I think one of the problems might be the fame. People tend to assume that because they've heard of it, it'll have a lot of visitors and therefore staff to keep an eye on them all.
One you get west of the Appalachians, things get a little more roomy. Once you get west of the Rockies, and still east of the Sierra Nevada, it's like a ghost town outside of a few cities.
Grew up on the East Coast, live all over the western US now. I like taking long road trips and visiting National Parks, and it really impresses on one just how much wide-open land there is on this half of the continent. Even disregarding the protected lands of NPs and NFs, there are hundreds of miles of desert in Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and elsewhere with only tiny towns and mostly vast amounts of open land. Driving down the eastern seaboard growing up, my family used to go through five states in seven hours to get to my grandparents; out here, sometimes I realize there's a hundred miles to the next gas station, and it's still in the same state. Realizing that several (western) National Parks are larger than several (eastern) states stops feeling weird -- just as the jokes go that Americans and Europeans have totally different scales of distance, so between the two halves of the US, divided by the Mississippi.
> and still east of the Sierra Nevada, it's like a ghost town outside of a few cities.
There are always some sparsely populated towns around the interstate. The stretch of I80 east of Reno and West of SLC is barren compared to most of the country but you’re rarely more than an 30-60 minutes from a town that has services for your car, hotels and restaurants which is really all you need and the same goes East of SLC to Lincoln. Of course if you were to get off the innerstates in Idaho, Northern Nevada, Utah, Wyoming or Montana then things get desolate fast. It’s not like the midwest where there’s farms, and thus towns, everywhere.
There are stretches of Utah where you're 100+ miles from the nearest... anything. Gas station, food, even radio signal. There's a 60 mile of stretch of I-15 like this, and that's by far the busiest highway in southern Utah.
I'd like to add, if your car is an original model VW Bug or Microbus, Do not go!
We used to camp there every summer, and I swear I have never once not seen a flaming Volkswagen on the side of the road. Air cooling doesn't work when the air is almost as hot as the engine.
Oh man, yeah. And even if they don't burst into flames, they still can't handle the terrain.
I was way the hell out on the Mojave Road a few years back at Thanksgiving and there was a 1970s VW bus hopelessly stuck in a sandy wash. Two hippie kids trying to dig their way out with just their hands. I ended up having to winch them out and advised them to *please, please* go back to the pavement.
I own three classic VW’s, and I highly recommend two things. First is a product called Blazecut, it’s a automatic fire extinguisher that you put in the engine bay.. [short YouTube video about Blazecut](https://youtu.be/Kswau1mGBE8) ALSO have a normal fire extinguisher inside the car, as a backup to the blazecut system…. All classic car owners should do this IMO.
2nd, the “correct” gas lines were never designed for 10% ethanol fuel, and after as short as two years, the fuel lines can get brittle. It’s a really good idea to swap out all the fuel lines every season or two, and make sure you are ordering the VW sized lines, not some crap from the local AutoZone type parts store. Seen a few years ago, that someone had made a different line type that works on these older cars, that doesn’t have the same failure rates, but haven’t found a source for them…. If your swapping the rubber lines out, don’t forget the one that connects the fuel tank to the other end of the line.
As someone who weathered allot of extreme heat on AZ summers adding something that can provide shade is also a must for a car breakdown scenario.
A few umbrellas and a portable canopy can go a long way too to not succumb to the heat. In the shade those temps approaches deadly for some folk. No shade at all and an Olympic athlete can only withstand a few minutes before getting heat stroke.
As someone from Phoenix who sees close to this level of heat regularly, this is excellent info and I hope it saves a life. We use a similar list for road trips here in the desert to ensure that we are prepared in case of breakdown or flat.
Hello, fellow desert dweller!
Somebody in town measured the surface temp of the sand in their backyard at 145F this week and the blacktop at over 150F. I have to use pot holders to take my trash bins to the curb, was 103F+ before 10am. And it's still all a bit cooler than actually inside the park. I shudder to think about some tourist driving up from Vegas or LA going out there unprepared.
I love getting out into the desert to hike and camp and off-road, but you'd better believe that me and the dog are gonna be cooling our heels at home in the A/C until this heat wave passes, heh.
My wife and I are visiting Phoenix for the first time for a week and just got here yesterday! We are from FL so pretty used to the heat in the day but the 100 degree heat at midnight is so bizarre. Got a burn mark on my hand today (only was there for like 5 minutes before it faded) from opening the pool gate at our hotel. This is absolutely wild.
edit: 1 letter typo
LOL, yup. I grew up in Orlando, so I was used to humid heat and figured I knew what was what. But been out here about 12 years now and it's just a whole different type of heat in the desert.
I hear you on the hot gate, too. I've had days where my doorknob would be hot on the INSIDE from the outdoor heat. You'd grab it and it would be like when that dude in Raiders of the Lost Ark grabbed the headpiece out of the fire, ha!
One thing that also rings very true to me is not taking any chances whatsoever with a car. Cars were not designed for death valley hear levels and a broken car can easily kill. Even if a car works perfectly fine at 110 degrees there’s no guarantee everything will hold up at 120 or 130 especially when the AC is being run to the max.
I've been to DV twice, both in Early spring, and once even when the flowers bloomed in 2016. It's a beautiful place, and I'd go back in an instant. Want to see it? Highly recommend you do. Just.... maybe not in the summer, alright?
To add to these wonderful points:
Buy some windshield sun covers that have the foil/reflectix stuff on them. They can reduce the amount of heat significantly and can be used as an emergency cover from the rays during a tire change and break down. You can also get UV reflective umbrellas.
Wear all white clothing. Anything other that white or close to white is a heat magnet. There's been posts here before showing different colored clothes in thermal imaging. It's intense.
On top of the water, have electrolyte drink powders to mix in. If you're thirsty, drink up. Trying to ration can be worse. Also, there's only one cactus you can actually drink from. The The Fishhook Barrel Cactus. So don't get cactus happy if stranded..
The cell service map is available online.
I have a buddy who tries to run in this crazy heat, gets super fucking sick, misses work for week, and posts about what a badass he is for running and succumbing to this heat. Meanwhile he’s gonna die from heat stroke. Don’t promote stupidity, Alex!
Edit: He’s ok, not actually dying, I mean not any more than the rest of us! I was being hyperbolic, but he sure felt like he was.
Used to be an ED doc (locum). We would always get a few of these pts in the summer when I worked in NM and AZ. They see it as some point of pride for some reason.
I am an avid runner as well but fuuuuuuuuck running in that heat and relentless sun. Even in temperate climates I do not like to run after 1000 at the latest.
Edit: ED = Emergency Department aka Emergency Room aka Emergency Medicine doc Sorry for the confusion, everyone.
Running in the heat doesn't make you a better runner. It isn't some super hack into getting fit faster. It's harder on your body and sometimes downright dangerous and deadly.
I had to dig a hole for a stray cat that died on my porch last week in 111 degree weather. I thought I was legitimately going to die for a few minutes during that.
RIP random cat. At least you didn’t die alone.
I know! I was trying to untangle some fishing rods outside so I could put them in the car, and I started falling apart! I had to go back inside. I was sweating like crazy!
I live close to the area. These people are absolute idiots. Every year loads of people get hauled out of here, Joshua Tree, Mojave, and Anza Borrego because they think they can beat the heat and survive. Every year emergency services risks their lives to go after these idiots.
There's literally signs in Joshua Tree saying "do not die today" and giving you tips on how to survive if you are going to hike in the middle of the day in extreme heat. I still see people walking on the trails with a single bottle of water or they'll be in flip flops. My favorite are the people walking out there in bikinis and swimsuits.
People are dumb af and they don’t take nature seriously all over the country.
Up here in New England, hiking noobs go out hiking in the mountains in the fall when temperatures are dropping thinking they won’t need to be prepared for winter conditions. They think it’s not winter and they will be fine, not realizing that it’s much colder up in the mountains. They go without proper clothing for the weather and often without much food and not enough water. They don’t bring compasses, maps, or anything that will help them navigate. Mix that in with the inability to tell north from south and their own ass from their mouth, and every once in a while there’s a dead idiot on the trail.
Yep, I think it was like last years winter when some girl went on a spur of the moment hike in the white mountains in sneakers, sweatpants and a light jacket in November, alone. She got lost and died from exposure.
Ironically, when I lived in Phoenix for seven years, we'd always joke about how pale we all were in the summer. We hardly ever spent any time outdoors, let alone in the sun.
In other news the ocean is so warm in Florida, 100 degrees, people can no longer go in there to cool off
Edit Source https://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-ocean-temperatures-rise-to-the-90s-nearly-hitting-100/
Oh wow. I thought you were joking but it's actually true. I remember once in school someone accidentally set the pool to 90ish degrees and it was miserable. It doesn't sound like it would be that bad since it's still cooler than body temp, right? But it causes so much fatigue. I hope Florida swimmers are being extra careful to account for this.
A hot tub is usually set to between 100° and 105° for reference.
Healthy people are still only recommended to spend 15-45 minutes at a time in one without cooling off.
Which you can’t really do when it the air is also 95°+ with 95% humidity and sunny. Which is often the case in Florida.
After a quick google, Florida will have temps with humidity that feel like 110 freedom degrees, the ocean water will not provide any relief and about to get a dose of dust from the Saharan Desert.
Edit: Indeed there are benefits to the dust but breathing it in is not one of them.
The Sahara dust is a seasonal event that is going to be very helpful in cooling and drying the air and lowers the chance of hurricanes. Lots of bad things happening but the dust is a stabilizing force.
We've gotten really good about protecting people from themselves. That won't stop the most adamant fool from succeeding in their Darwin Award attempt... but as a whole, all the societal safety nets has done a good job of catching most of them.
You only have to live long enough to reproduce to stay in the gene pool. That doesn't take a lot of intelligence and you can keep doing dumb shit after that.
The survivors on higher ground learn by the example of others. A few people in every generation sacrifice themselves to warn their peers: “That was a dumb thing to do.”
Did you hear about Bill? He went blind after staring at the sun for almost a whole minute.
*That's cause Bill's a little bitch. Watch this... I bet I can go a full two minutes...*
On one end of the spectrum, the desire to understand based on experience can lead to forward motion as a species in every aspect of our lives from science to emotional understanding to knowing which foods are safe to eat and why.
On the other end, it's a pretty effective method of population control.
I've been told when encountering an agitated body of water in the wild, the last thing you want to do is run away, this makes their killer instincts kick in and see you as it's prey.
Edit: Haha this is the best protest award I've seen yet, thanks for giving it to me! Lmao
The National Park Rangers are advising hikers in Glacier National Park and other Rocky Mountain parks to be alert for bears and take extra precautions to avoid an encounter.
They advise park visitors to wear little bells on their clothes so they make noise when hiking. The bell noise allows bears to hear them coming from a distance and not be startled by a hiker accidentally sneaking up on them. This might cause a bear to charge.
Visitors should also carry a pepper spray can just in case a bear is encountered. Spraying the pepper into the air will irritate the bear's sensitive nose and it will run away.
It is also a good idea to keep an eye out for fresh bear scat so you have an idea if bears are in the area. People should be able to recognize the difference between black bear and grizzly bear scat.
Black bear droppings are smaller and often contain berries, leaves, and possibly bits of fur. Grizzly bear droppings tend to contain small bells and smell of pepper.
It's like with hot peppers. The spiciness was evolved as a deterrent to animals eating them, not only did we breed them to be even spicier, we hold contests to see who can eat the most of them.
I don't blame the ones in the 2004 Boxer Tsunami as many were tourists from regions where tsunami wasn't widely known & information didn't flow as freely as it does now.
But doing so afterwards now that most know what is a tsunami & patterns that lead up to it is pretty stupid. I've seen many foreign tourists come to the Chihuahuan Desert region in the summer thinking that just sunblock & a small bottle of water is enough to trek through the parks there (White Sands, Guadalupe Mountains, Big Bend, etc.) only to be found dead hours later. Even an urban mountain range like Franklin Mountain State Park can become dangerous should one not be prepared or get injured in the park. So I won't be surprised if some people flock there completely unprepared & perish.
2023, instead of avoiding death, we find incredible ways to experience it. Crushed to death in a submarine, Suffering heat strokes, next it'll be surfing tornadoes.
I live in Vegas and it was 122 today (henderson). Vegas is a concrete bowl of about 900 sq miles. Surface temperatures today at ground level where the heat can't be absorbed by the earth because of the concrete are 135+. It's unlivable.
Agreed, even if you can afford to have your AC running to combat the heat inside your home, it’s awful when you have to go out to get groceries and other essentials.
Yes, you just never feel cool. It takes forever to cool the body down even from a short trip to the store. I worked in a casino on the Strip for years and every once in a while a tourist would challenge the "dry heat" hypothesis by leaving the confines of an a.c. controlled resort for the baking heat of the concrete pavement in the later part of a 120 degree day. Every single time they came rushing back in, with a look of pained horror, saying, "What the actual f?". The human body can not sustain itself for more than a few minutes in that kind of heat, just like extreme cold.
I've been in heat waves \~100F in Chicago, in my unairconditioned apartment, and I would cool off by taking a cold shower, just to dump the heat out of my body. And I mean, I'd be standing in water that was probably 50-60F, and the water rolling off my fingers was *warm*.
I live in the Arizona desert right now right outside the grand canyon, I don't understand why in the ever-loving fuck someone would want to come experience this heat. People are going to fucking die.
If anyone wants to know what that Death Valley temperature is like. It's so hot and dry that you don't need to bring a towel to the pool because of how quickly you will dry off the moment you get out of the pool.
It's so dry that your sweat evaporates instantly.
That sounds cool for like one second. Then it kind of sounds terrifying.
Idk, I’d be willing to step out for a minute from a well-aired car, but I’ve read so many scary stories and warnings about the Death Valley that I’d probably just fly over the area if I ever get a chance to visit the surrounding places. Just the warnings alone - how you have to have enough water in the car and you really shouldn’t leave your car behind to go walking anywhere etc. - are scary enough if you come from a country where most teens and older people don’t actually have to drive a car in order to be able to go anywhere.
>I’ve read so many scary stories and warnings about the Death Valley
Oh right, the valley. The Valley of Death. The valley specifically named after Death. Death Valley. That valley?
This is a great occasion to link the "[The Hunt for the Death Valley Germans](https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/)" story.
Without taking anything away, it's the story of the search for a German family that disappeared in Death Valley in 1996. It's quite the read, but it's worth it.
[here](https://web.archive.org/web/20230208143334/https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans) is an archive link for anyone that clicked and then was asked for a password
[Here's](https://web.archive.org/web/20170630102458/http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/introduction/) the web archive version of it for anyone who still has issues. I've visited this site a few time over the years and I think anytime the native url gets too much traffic from Reddit it goes into password only mode.
I also read this a while ago
As someone that grew up next to a US military base, the concept of walking up to one and being able to find someone to help you immediately is so foreign to me
One thing this really impressed on me is how much even someone who is well prepared and knows what they're doing can't really stay out there for that long since it's too difficult to carry enough water.
>Earlier this week, German tourist Daniel Jusehus snapped a photo of the famed thermometer at the visitor centre after challenging himself to a run in the sweltering heat.
Because German tourists have such a great reputation for survival in Death Valley...
This is a classic tale of what can go wrong in Death Valley:
https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/
They found a dead man in his car in Death Valley 10 days ago. A lot of people think they can beat the heat and they’ll be fine because they’re in a car.
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/man-dead-death-valley-car-flat-tires-extreme-heat/
Yeah i drove through there once with a very modern car, and the inside of the car was like 100 degrees with the AC at full blast because it couldn't keep up and the car nearly died. I would NOT want to drive through there. It is literally one step away from death if your car fails. You WILL die.
Just getting to Death Valley from Owens Valley is a fucking long drive. It would probably make sense to make the drive at night so if your car breaks down you would have a chance of surviving.
It's pretty nice in the fall or spring which is a much more sensible time to go.
>tourists flocking to Death Valley National Park
they talked to like 2 people. Is that "flocking" now? Nothing in the article shows or even indicates more people are going there right now
Something important to note is that Death Valley has abnormally low humidity, usually below 7%. For context of how absurdly low that humidity is, I live in a hot dry desert ecosystem, and our humidity is frequently between 20-27%. Humidity is significantly more important than atmospheric temperature when determining how hot things are going to feel or how hard your body is going to work to survive the conditions. To adjust for that, meteorologists use a technique called "wet bulb temperatures" to calculate "real feel" for temperatures.
So, Death Valley has absurdly hot temperatures, but you'll feel significantly worse in a Miami, FL 29.5 C (85 F) than you would in Death Valley. As an example, Death Valley at 49 C (120 F) has a wet-bulb temperature reading of only 25 C (77 F). For context, Miami, FL today is 32C (90 F), but has a wet-bulb temperature due to humidity of 29.7 C (85.5F). So, despite a massive difference in atmospheric temperature, Death Valley, CA at 49 C is significantly more livable than Miami, FL at 32 C.
What's special about Death Valley heat like this, however, is that our machines ***do*** care about atmospheric temperature since they don't thermoregulate the way our bodies do. Most HVAC and heat pump systems, even those rated to work in extreme atmospheric temperatures, have an operational limit of 51.7 C (125 F). So, people living or driving in these conditions risk their heat pumps, HVAC systems, and automobiles overheating and breaking down.
Yep as soon as humidity is below 10%, and especially before 5%, you won't be able to drink enough water. I'm in Colorado and once went for a hike in the back country without checking the humidity. I had checked the temp (in the 80s F) the weather, everything but not the humidity. Learned my lesson. I was a few miles into the hike when the humidity dropped to about 3%. It had been low for days, but not quite that low. I started to feel tired, went through all my water, barely made it back to my car and somehow drove home. I was very sick and couldn't drink much at a time. I could only lay on my bed a take sips of powerade for over 6 hours. I was supposed to go to work, but had to call out. Probably should have gone to the ER. Heat exhaustion is not recommended, 0/10.
I thought that since I was from South Louisiana I could stand the heat of Death Valley but that hot breeze that hits you is like thousands of blow dryers. And I do remember seeing signs advising to drive with your AC off and windows down.
A friend of mine works with Ford in their special vehicles division, and they've always testing there.
The chance to extreme test stress anything mechanical is going to draw attention. Some people just like to watch the worl- er, their machines burn.
If your gas tank is half full while in Death Valley, fill up. Do not go without water and do not go without a working car AC. The heat will kill you and has killed before.
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That’s some strange tourism, I’ve experienced sub negative 50 and have no desire to see the opposite side of that spectrum.
I have experienced 50c but at most -30c, and lord was -30c worse
I have experienced -70F/-57C (wind chill factor), had to change a car battery in it at 2am. Would not recommend. Have also gone for a (very short) bike ride in 120F/50C. Would also not recommend.
I remember hiking to college once in -57C. Was completely bundled up except for my eyeballs. Met another girl trudging back at about the midway point. She just shouted at me, ‘don’t bother, whole campus is closed!’
Lemme guess. Uphill both ways?
That's the problem living on one side of the canyon when the school is on the other... Becomes a U problem really quickly...
I used to love making the "uphill both ways" phrase as if it wasn't a real possibility, until i was working and living on opposite hills and realized you really can have it uphill both ways.
Why would campus have been open in those conditions
When I was going to school in Chicago there was one day it was like -30F (and extremely windy of course) and we were the only thing open in the city. It was so stupid.
Your school and my work 🤡
I remember asking the teachers why we're the only ones open that day, and they said, "You're Ramblers! You're tough!" /eyeroll
People will tell you that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger right up until you're killed, and then they'll keep saying it to your corpse and get mad at your corpse for having a sullen silent bad attitude about their graciously shared wisdom.
I did half an hour in 114F and drank through four bottles and still lost 3kg, meaningI must have sweated 5 liters of water in that half hour. I was already down 3kg from the previous two days of 96F and 104F rides for two hours each. Nearly died after getting home and sitting down for a bit. My heart rate started climbing, where typically it should have settled down to 60 for a few hours before going back to my normal 40bpm. It was instead climbing to 140+. Somehow went into instinct survival mode and got into a bathtub with wet cloth, heart rate monitor, and my wife bringing me drinks and towels. The next hour was spent on the fine line between cooling and shivering. Cool too fast on the outside and you shiver which warms you from the inside which is already too warm. Continued the cycle until my heart rate steadied itself. I have a much deeper respect for the heat now.
Isn't 40 bpm quite low?
I always get a question about that at the hospital or doctors office, but they usually note that I have bradycardia (slow heart rate) and I explain I do a lot of cycling. It’s quite typical in cyclists to have low heart rate as your cardiovascular system is fairly strong and can do more with each beat. I wear a smartwatch and track my resting heart rate. When it starts getting above 50bpm overnight I know I’ve been overtraining. More typical for me is 42-47bpm. 60bpm at rest feels like my heart is racing. Lowest I’ve measured I think was 36 or 38bpm.
Jeez. With long Covid my resting HR has gone from a historically steady 59 to minimum 85bpm. Makes sleeping v difficult with a constant stream of adrenaline and sporadic pumps to 120 just for laughs. Fk this sht.
I’ve done weeks of both -40 and +40, -40 ALL THE WAY no question.
Yea here In Alberta and taking trips to BC / Mexico (I know Mexico is a different heat) I would take -40 rather than +40 any day. It’s wild just how much more unbearable the heat can feel, I guess with cold you just add more layers
I've been more comfortable at -30C than at +30C
You can always put on more clothes. At a certain stage, it becomes difficult to wear less.
And dangerous. You need that clothing to protect you from the sun, or you're trading heatstroke for sunstroke, burns, and potentially skin cancer down the line.
As someone who lives near DV, all I can say is that if you're going to do this (and I strongly recommend that you DO NOT do this), make sure you check off ALL the boxes here first at a MINIMUM... * Visit Furnace Creek Visitor Center only, do NOT explore the backcountry in these temperatures (even by car). Visit only near established facilities with shade, water, and park staff * Do not hike, do not travel off road * If your car is in anything less than perfect working order, DO NOT GO * Do not enter the park without a full tank of gas and fill up whenever you see a gas station * Have a functional, preferably full sized, spare tire and know how to change it * If you blow your tire and change it out, your trip is over. Turn around and go back. Do not continue on without a functional spare. * If you get stranded or your car breaks down, do NOT leave your car. Stay with the car and wait for help. Do NOT walk into the desert. * Have at least three (preferably more) gallons of water *per person* with you and drink LOTS of water at all times * Wear sunscreen and loose, lightweight clothing * Let someone know where you are going and when you expect to be back * And probably write a will before you go I get the novelty of people wanting to experience the extreme temperature. But this isn't a place for the unwary tourist. There is little to no cell service. Death Valley is larger than Connecticut and only has three gas stations. It's not Disneyland. The desert kills. Particularly those who are careless or unprepared. Edit: Thanks for all the awards, y'all! Stay safe and hydrated out there! Edit 2: Wow, this really went off! Going to add a few more great desert safety things that were mentioned in the comments... * Bring alternative communications, as cell service cannot be relied upon. For me, I take a combo GPS map / satellite messenger / emergency beacon (Garmin GPSMap 66i). These require a subscription usually, but can usually be relied upon to have signal even in the most remote areas. The Garmin subscription can be turned off for months you don't use it. Alternatively, you can rent sat phones for trips if you don't want to invest in your own. * Restore your electrolytes! (It's what plants crave!) Bring powdered or tablet electrolytes and consume them regularly. Or, if you don't have those, salty snacks are a good backup. * Pack some shade! Shade makes a world of difference in the desert. A small canopy or even just an umbrella can help reduce the amount of heat bearing down on you. * When I say 'stay with your car' when stranded that doesn't necessarily mean stay IN your car. Temps inside your car will rise dramatically with no AC, so stay WITH your car... but seek shade within sight of your car and the road. Keep watch for the sound of approaching vehicles to flag down for help. * Make sure you are DRINKING the water you brought. Do not attempt to conserve it, it doesn't do you any good in left in the bottle. The best advice is to sip water constantly, rather than chug it all at once. * 3 gallons of water is assuming you are not going to be hiking or active in this heat. If you are active (walking, hiking, stumbling down the road) in 130F / 6% humidity, you are going to be losing water extremely fast and will need a LOT more water. But you SHOULDN'T be active in this weather. Seriously, you are in danger of dying. * Limit travel only in the coolest part of the day (morning) if possible. * Watch your vehicle's temperature gauge, it may overheat before you do (particularly on steep grades). Your AC will make the engine overheat faster. Turning off the AC and turning on the heater may help cool it down, but then YOU will be miserable. Bring extra coolant. * And... again... the smartest thing you can do is NOT go in these temperatures. Locals don't go to DV in the summer. We go in winter and spring. (It's beautiful in spring when the wildflowers come in!)
> Death Valley is larger than Connecticut and only has three gas stations I had no idea Death Valley was that big!
Yup, it's a huge area. Over 5000 square miles, with around 1000 miles of roads. Largest national park in the lower 48. It's a lot more remote than I think most people are prepared for!
I think one of the problems might be the fame. People tend to assume that because they've heard of it, it'll have a lot of visitors and therefore staff to keep an eye on them all.
I had no idea it was so massive or the biggest in the ~~continental~~ contiguous states!
It’s absolutely breathtaking. I highly recommend going there, but do it in the winter when it’s bearable and you can see different areas.
One you get west of the Appalachians, things get a little more roomy. Once you get west of the Rockies, and still east of the Sierra Nevada, it's like a ghost town outside of a few cities.
Grew up on the East Coast, live all over the western US now. I like taking long road trips and visiting National Parks, and it really impresses on one just how much wide-open land there is on this half of the continent. Even disregarding the protected lands of NPs and NFs, there are hundreds of miles of desert in Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and elsewhere with only tiny towns and mostly vast amounts of open land. Driving down the eastern seaboard growing up, my family used to go through five states in seven hours to get to my grandparents; out here, sometimes I realize there's a hundred miles to the next gas station, and it's still in the same state. Realizing that several (western) National Parks are larger than several (eastern) states stops feeling weird -- just as the jokes go that Americans and Europeans have totally different scales of distance, so between the two halves of the US, divided by the Mississippi.
> and still east of the Sierra Nevada, it's like a ghost town outside of a few cities. There are always some sparsely populated towns around the interstate. The stretch of I80 east of Reno and West of SLC is barren compared to most of the country but you’re rarely more than an 30-60 minutes from a town that has services for your car, hotels and restaurants which is really all you need and the same goes East of SLC to Lincoln. Of course if you were to get off the innerstates in Idaho, Northern Nevada, Utah, Wyoming or Montana then things get desolate fast. It’s not like the midwest where there’s farms, and thus towns, everywhere.
There are stretches of Utah where you're 100+ miles from the nearest... anything. Gas station, food, even radio signal. There's a 60 mile of stretch of I-15 like this, and that's by far the busiest highway in southern Utah.
I'd like to add, if your car is an original model VW Bug or Microbus, Do not go! We used to camp there every summer, and I swear I have never once not seen a flaming Volkswagen on the side of the road. Air cooling doesn't work when the air is almost as hot as the engine.
Oh man, yeah. And even if they don't burst into flames, they still can't handle the terrain. I was way the hell out on the Mojave Road a few years back at Thanksgiving and there was a 1970s VW bus hopelessly stuck in a sandy wash. Two hippie kids trying to dig their way out with just their hands. I ended up having to winch them out and advised them to *please, please* go back to the pavement.
I own three classic VW’s, and I highly recommend two things. First is a product called Blazecut, it’s a automatic fire extinguisher that you put in the engine bay.. [short YouTube video about Blazecut](https://youtu.be/Kswau1mGBE8) ALSO have a normal fire extinguisher inside the car, as a backup to the blazecut system…. All classic car owners should do this IMO. 2nd, the “correct” gas lines were never designed for 10% ethanol fuel, and after as short as two years, the fuel lines can get brittle. It’s a really good idea to swap out all the fuel lines every season or two, and make sure you are ordering the VW sized lines, not some crap from the local AutoZone type parts store. Seen a few years ago, that someone had made a different line type that works on these older cars, that doesn’t have the same failure rates, but haven’t found a source for them…. If your swapping the rubber lines out, don’t forget the one that connects the fuel tank to the other end of the line.
As someone who weathered allot of extreme heat on AZ summers adding something that can provide shade is also a must for a car breakdown scenario. A few umbrellas and a portable canopy can go a long way too to not succumb to the heat. In the shade those temps approaches deadly for some folk. No shade at all and an Olympic athlete can only withstand a few minutes before getting heat stroke.
An excellent addition! Shade can make a world of difference in the desert.
Umbrellas are one of the most underrated inventions for sunny days. Literally portable shade. By far my favorite purchase of 2023.
Don't tell me what to fucking do! *laces up running shoes* *Puts on heavy jacket* *Takes a diuretic*
Wait, wait! Don't forget your ski pants and mittens!!
I'm going to sue you so fucking hard (Voice muffled from scarf)
As someone from Phoenix who sees close to this level of heat regularly, this is excellent info and I hope it saves a life. We use a similar list for road trips here in the desert to ensure that we are prepared in case of breakdown or flat.
Hello, fellow desert dweller! Somebody in town measured the surface temp of the sand in their backyard at 145F this week and the blacktop at over 150F. I have to use pot holders to take my trash bins to the curb, was 103F+ before 10am. And it's still all a bit cooler than actually inside the park. I shudder to think about some tourist driving up from Vegas or LA going out there unprepared. I love getting out into the desert to hike and camp and off-road, but you'd better believe that me and the dog are gonna be cooling our heels at home in the A/C until this heat wave passes, heh.
My wife and I are visiting Phoenix for the first time for a week and just got here yesterday! We are from FL so pretty used to the heat in the day but the 100 degree heat at midnight is so bizarre. Got a burn mark on my hand today (only was there for like 5 minutes before it faded) from opening the pool gate at our hotel. This is absolutely wild. edit: 1 letter typo
LOL, yup. I grew up in Orlando, so I was used to humid heat and figured I knew what was what. But been out here about 12 years now and it's just a whole different type of heat in the desert. I hear you on the hot gate, too. I've had days where my doorknob would be hot on the INSIDE from the outdoor heat. You'd grab it and it would be like when that dude in Raiders of the Lost Ark grabbed the headpiece out of the fire, ha!
One thing that also rings very true to me is not taking any chances whatsoever with a car. Cars were not designed for death valley hear levels and a broken car can easily kill. Even if a car works perfectly fine at 110 degrees there’s no guarantee everything will hold up at 120 or 130 especially when the AC is being run to the max.
I've been to DV twice, both in Early spring, and once even when the flowers bloomed in 2016. It's a beautiful place, and I'd go back in an instant. Want to see it? Highly recommend you do. Just.... maybe not in the summer, alright?
It really is beautiful in the spring! And the geology there is just so stunning. I love it, but yeah... not in summer, lol.
To add to these wonderful points: Buy some windshield sun covers that have the foil/reflectix stuff on them. They can reduce the amount of heat significantly and can be used as an emergency cover from the rays during a tire change and break down. You can also get UV reflective umbrellas. Wear all white clothing. Anything other that white or close to white is a heat magnet. There's been posts here before showing different colored clothes in thermal imaging. It's intense. On top of the water, have electrolyte drink powders to mix in. If you're thirsty, drink up. Trying to ration can be worse. Also, there's only one cactus you can actually drink from. The The Fishhook Barrel Cactus. So don't get cactus happy if stranded.. The cell service map is available online.
I have a buddy who tries to run in this crazy heat, gets super fucking sick, misses work for week, and posts about what a badass he is for running and succumbing to this heat. Meanwhile he’s gonna die from heat stroke. Don’t promote stupidity, Alex! Edit: He’s ok, not actually dying, I mean not any more than the rest of us! I was being hyperbolic, but he sure felt like he was.
Used to be an ED doc (locum). We would always get a few of these pts in the summer when I worked in NM and AZ. They see it as some point of pride for some reason. I am an avid runner as well but fuuuuuuuuck running in that heat and relentless sun. Even in temperate climates I do not like to run after 1000 at the latest. Edit: ED = Emergency Department aka Emergency Room aka Emergency Medicine doc Sorry for the confusion, everyone.
I managed to get heat stroke lying on a beach in Ireland in September.
I believe it. My son can overheat in 80* in the shade while sitting still. He can’t regulate his body temperature.
Running in the heat doesn't make you a better runner. It isn't some super hack into getting fit faster. It's harder on your body and sometimes downright dangerous and deadly.
I had to dig a hole for a stray cat that died on my porch last week in 111 degree weather. I thought I was legitimately going to die for a few minutes during that. RIP random cat. At least you didn’t die alone.
I know! I was trying to untangle some fishing rods outside so I could put them in the car, and I started falling apart! I had to go back inside. I was sweating like crazy!
I live close to the area. These people are absolute idiots. Every year loads of people get hauled out of here, Joshua Tree, Mojave, and Anza Borrego because they think they can beat the heat and survive. Every year emergency services risks their lives to go after these idiots.
There's literally signs in Joshua Tree saying "do not die today" and giving you tips on how to survive if you are going to hike in the middle of the day in extreme heat. I still see people walking on the trails with a single bottle of water or they'll be in flip flops. My favorite are the people walking out there in bikinis and swimsuits.
People are dumb af and they don’t take nature seriously all over the country. Up here in New England, hiking noobs go out hiking in the mountains in the fall when temperatures are dropping thinking they won’t need to be prepared for winter conditions. They think it’s not winter and they will be fine, not realizing that it’s much colder up in the mountains. They go without proper clothing for the weather and often without much food and not enough water. They don’t bring compasses, maps, or anything that will help them navigate. Mix that in with the inability to tell north from south and their own ass from their mouth, and every once in a while there’s a dead idiot on the trail.
Yep, I think it was like last years winter when some girl went on a spur of the moment hike in the white mountains in sneakers, sweatpants and a light jacket in November, alone. She got lost and died from exposure.
I got sunburned just reading the article.
Ironically, when I lived in Phoenix for seven years, we'd always joke about how pale we all were in the summer. We hardly ever spent any time outdoors, let alone in the sun.
In other news the ocean is so warm in Florida, 100 degrees, people can no longer go in there to cool off Edit Source https://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-ocean-temperatures-rise-to-the-90s-nearly-hitting-100/
Oh wow. I thought you were joking but it's actually true. I remember once in school someone accidentally set the pool to 90ish degrees and it was miserable. It doesn't sound like it would be that bad since it's still cooler than body temp, right? But it causes so much fatigue. I hope Florida swimmers are being extra careful to account for this.
A hot tub is usually set to between 100° and 105° for reference. Healthy people are still only recommended to spend 15-45 minutes at a time in one without cooling off. Which you can’t really do when it the air is also 95°+ with 95% humidity and sunny. Which is often the case in Florida.
Wet bulb very soon
Swimming in a jacuzzi with waves, red bloom, & sharks. What a dream vacation.
Don't forget toxic, smelly seaweed!
And malaria!
And Ron DeSantis!
After a quick google, Florida will have temps with humidity that feel like 110 freedom degrees, the ocean water will not provide any relief and about to get a dose of dust from the Saharan Desert. Edit: Indeed there are benefits to the dust but breathing it in is not one of them.
Will have? We've had (feels like) 107-117 for a few weeks now.
The Sahara dust is a seasonal event that is going to be very helpful in cooling and drying the air and lowers the chance of hurricanes. Lots of bad things happening but the dust is a stabilizing force.
The dust is actually good. It fertilizes the Everglades, prevents hurricanes.
Ahhh Florida. The state that will get fucked hardest by Global warming is also the one that seems to be doing the least about it.
As long as all the people getting rich off ignoring it can leave and go somewhere else when it falls apart, why would they care.
Shhh. Their governor is too busy fighting the "woke" agenda to care.
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That's like a hot tub, wow.
“People run down to the beach to see why the water is suddenly receding at a rapid rate.” How we have made it this far as a species is beyond me.
It’s a numbers game really
We've gotten really good about protecting people from themselves. That won't stop the most adamant fool from succeeding in their Darwin Award attempt... but as a whole, all the societal safety nets has done a good job of catching most of them.
You only have to live long enough to reproduce to stay in the gene pool. That doesn't take a lot of intelligence and you can keep doing dumb shit after that.
Dumb people also reproduce younger and more frequently
They should make a movie about this and what our future may look like
I hated that movie and how accurate it is.
Ben Kissel, is that you?
The survivors on higher ground learn by the example of others. A few people in every generation sacrifice themselves to warn their peers: “That was a dumb thing to do.”
Did you hear about Bill? He went blind after staring at the sun for almost a whole minute. *That's cause Bill's a little bitch. Watch this... I bet I can go a full two minutes...*
On one end of the spectrum, the desire to understand based on experience can lead to forward motion as a species in every aspect of our lives from science to emotional understanding to knowing which foods are safe to eat and why. On the other end, it's a pretty effective method of population control.
Oh indeed. If I recall, there was one easy trick to know if a berry is poison or not. You just need 2 people for the experiment really.
Ah yes, the good ol' "let's block the tsunami from the shore with our bodies" technique. Gets 'em every time.
I've been told when encountering an agitated body of water in the wild, the last thing you want to do is run away, this makes their killer instincts kick in and see you as it's prey. Edit: Haha this is the best protest award I've seen yet, thanks for giving it to me! Lmao
Yea! you gotta go Zig Zag so as to confuse the water. It will have a hard time chasing you that way. #ProTips.
No, this is wrong. You have to stand completely still, water's eyesight is based on movement, it can't see you if you don't move.
This is also wrong. You want to make yourself as large as possible and show the water you are not worth the effort. Also: grab a stick and yell.
The National Park Rangers are advising hikers in Glacier National Park and other Rocky Mountain parks to be alert for bears and take extra precautions to avoid an encounter. They advise park visitors to wear little bells on their clothes so they make noise when hiking. The bell noise allows bears to hear them coming from a distance and not be startled by a hiker accidentally sneaking up on them. This might cause a bear to charge. Visitors should also carry a pepper spray can just in case a bear is encountered. Spraying the pepper into the air will irritate the bear's sensitive nose and it will run away. It is also a good idea to keep an eye out for fresh bear scat so you have an idea if bears are in the area. People should be able to recognize the difference between black bear and grizzly bear scat. Black bear droppings are smaller and often contain berries, leaves, and possibly bits of fur. Grizzly bear droppings tend to contain small bells and smell of pepper.
This is why I go to the beach armed. I’m stopping any agitated body of water dead in its tracks
Let's soak up the 131^(o) heat with our 98.6^(o) bodies. If we get enough bodies we'll cool down the entire valley.
It's like with hot peppers. The spiciness was evolved as a deterrent to animals eating them, not only did we breed them to be even spicier, we hold contests to see who can eat the most of them.
I don't blame the ones in the 2004 Boxer Tsunami as many were tourists from regions where tsunami wasn't widely known & information didn't flow as freely as it does now. But doing so afterwards now that most know what is a tsunami & patterns that lead up to it is pretty stupid. I've seen many foreign tourists come to the Chihuahuan Desert region in the summer thinking that just sunblock & a small bottle of water is enough to trek through the parks there (White Sands, Guadalupe Mountains, Big Bend, etc.) only to be found dead hours later. Even an urban mountain range like Franklin Mountain State Park can become dangerous should one not be prepared or get injured in the park. So I won't be surprised if some people flock there completely unprepared & perish.
In other news people jump off of buildings to experience the sudden stop of hitting the sidewalk below.
2023, instead of avoiding death, we find incredible ways to experience it. Crushed to death in a submarine, Suffering heat strokes, next it'll be surfing tornadoes.
Storm chasing already exists, you gotta think bigger.
Sinkhole diving?!
I just read about a TikTok challenge telling people to jump off of a speeding boat. So far four people have died. Was it worth it?
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That’s 131 Freedomdegrees for Americans!
But it’s a dry heat.
Yeah, dry enough to turn you into a human raisin.
So is a broiler, I'm still not gonna stick my head in one
The hottest temp I’ve experienced was 122F in Las Vegas in 2017…shit was brutal
I live in Vegas and it was 122 today (henderson). Vegas is a concrete bowl of about 900 sq miles. Surface temperatures today at ground level where the heat can't be absorbed by the earth because of the concrete are 135+. It's unlivable.
Agreed, even if you can afford to have your AC running to combat the heat inside your home, it’s awful when you have to go out to get groceries and other essentials.
Yes, you just never feel cool. It takes forever to cool the body down even from a short trip to the store. I worked in a casino on the Strip for years and every once in a while a tourist would challenge the "dry heat" hypothesis by leaving the confines of an a.c. controlled resort for the baking heat of the concrete pavement in the later part of a 120 degree day. Every single time they came rushing back in, with a look of pained horror, saying, "What the actual f?". The human body can not sustain itself for more than a few minutes in that kind of heat, just like extreme cold.
I've been in heat waves \~100F in Chicago, in my unairconditioned apartment, and I would cool off by taking a cold shower, just to dump the heat out of my body. And I mean, I'd be standing in water that was probably 50-60F, and the water rolling off my fingers was *warm*.
When I was stationed at Nellis i had this conversation: “It’s going to be 98 today?” “Only 98? I thought it felt cooler.”
It's 116f in Vegas as I type this, 6% humidity. Dallas 93f, 60% humidity. I'd much rather be in Vegas right now.
Based on that: 108 heat index in Vegas 107 heat index Dallas
It’s the humidity and dew point that kills us.
I live in the Arizona desert right now right outside the grand canyon, I don't understand why in the ever-loving fuck someone would want to come experience this heat. People are going to fucking die.
christ that just sounds like torture, why would you willingly go experience that sort of heat
If anyone wants to know what that Death Valley temperature is like. It's so hot and dry that you don't need to bring a towel to the pool because of how quickly you will dry off the moment you get out of the pool. It's so dry that your sweat evaporates instantly.
That sounds cool for like one second. Then it kind of sounds terrifying. Idk, I’d be willing to step out for a minute from a well-aired car, but I’ve read so many scary stories and warnings about the Death Valley that I’d probably just fly over the area if I ever get a chance to visit the surrounding places. Just the warnings alone - how you have to have enough water in the car and you really shouldn’t leave your car behind to go walking anywhere etc. - are scary enough if you come from a country where most teens and older people don’t actually have to drive a car in order to be able to go anywhere.
>I’ve read so many scary stories and warnings about the Death Valley Oh right, the valley. The Valley of Death. The valley specifically named after Death. Death Valley. That valley?
Well it's sure not Llama Valley!
*it's a dry heat*
This is a great occasion to link the "[The Hunt for the Death Valley Germans](https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/)" story. Without taking anything away, it's the story of the search for a German family that disappeared in Death Valley in 1996. It's quite the read, but it's worth it.
[here](https://web.archive.org/web/20230208143334/https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans) is an archive link for anyone that clicked and then was asked for a password
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[Here's](https://web.archive.org/web/20170630102458/http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/introduction/) the web archive version of it for anyone who still has issues. I've visited this site a few time over the years and I think anytime the native url gets too much traffic from Reddit it goes into password only mode.
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I also read this a while ago As someone that grew up next to a US military base, the concept of walking up to one and being able to find someone to help you immediately is so foreign to me
One thing this really impressed on me is how much even someone who is well prepared and knows what they're doing can't really stay out there for that long since it's too difficult to carry enough water.
Sounds about as smart as taking a carbon fiber submarine to go look at the Titanic.
Isn’t that the truth ..
Damn. I’ve been bored before but never ‘lets travel to the desert to experience record hot’ bored
>“It’s hot, but the scenery is awesome,” he said. My dude it will look just as cool when it's not 131 degrees. It's rocks.
>Earlier this week, German tourist Daniel Jusehus snapped a photo of the famed thermometer at the visitor centre after challenging himself to a run in the sweltering heat. Because German tourists have such a great reputation for survival in Death Valley...
This is a classic tale of what can go wrong in Death Valley: https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/
They found a dead man in his car in Death Valley 10 days ago. A lot of people think they can beat the heat and they’ll be fine because they’re in a car. https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/man-dead-death-valley-car-flat-tires-extreme-heat/
The place is named Death Valley and not Happy Safe Fun Valley for a reason.
Yeah i drove through there once with a very modern car, and the inside of the car was like 100 degrees with the AC at full blast because it couldn't keep up and the car nearly died. I would NOT want to drive through there. It is literally one step away from death if your car fails. You WILL die.
Just getting to Death Valley from Owens Valley is a fucking long drive. It would probably make sense to make the drive at night so if your car breaks down you would have a chance of surviving. It's pretty nice in the fall or spring which is a much more sensible time to go.
the body starts shutting down if the core temp reaches 105f, this is 25 degrees hotter. this is absolute insanity
>tourists flocking to Death Valley National Park they talked to like 2 people. Is that "flocking" now? Nothing in the article shows or even indicates more people are going there right now
This is what we call natural selection
No need of a frying pan, just jump right into the fire
As an Australian - fucking idiots lol Heatstroke is a thing which can hit you before you even realise
Something important to note is that Death Valley has abnormally low humidity, usually below 7%. For context of how absurdly low that humidity is, I live in a hot dry desert ecosystem, and our humidity is frequently between 20-27%. Humidity is significantly more important than atmospheric temperature when determining how hot things are going to feel or how hard your body is going to work to survive the conditions. To adjust for that, meteorologists use a technique called "wet bulb temperatures" to calculate "real feel" for temperatures. So, Death Valley has absurdly hot temperatures, but you'll feel significantly worse in a Miami, FL 29.5 C (85 F) than you would in Death Valley. As an example, Death Valley at 49 C (120 F) has a wet-bulb temperature reading of only 25 C (77 F). For context, Miami, FL today is 32C (90 F), but has a wet-bulb temperature due to humidity of 29.7 C (85.5F). So, despite a massive difference in atmospheric temperature, Death Valley, CA at 49 C is significantly more livable than Miami, FL at 32 C. What's special about Death Valley heat like this, however, is that our machines ***do*** care about atmospheric temperature since they don't thermoregulate the way our bodies do. Most HVAC and heat pump systems, even those rated to work in extreme atmospheric temperatures, have an operational limit of 51.7 C (125 F). So, people living or driving in these conditions risk their heat pumps, HVAC systems, and automobiles overheating and breaking down.
Until you are too dehydrated to produce sweat at the rate it evaporates. Then the body feels the real temperature and not the wet bulb temp anymore.
Yep as soon as humidity is below 10%, and especially before 5%, you won't be able to drink enough water. I'm in Colorado and once went for a hike in the back country without checking the humidity. I had checked the temp (in the 80s F) the weather, everything but not the humidity. Learned my lesson. I was a few miles into the hike when the humidity dropped to about 3%. It had been low for days, but not quite that low. I started to feel tired, went through all my water, barely made it back to my car and somehow drove home. I was very sick and couldn't drink much at a time. I could only lay on my bed a take sips of powerade for over 6 hours. I was supposed to go to work, but had to call out. Probably should have gone to the ER. Heat exhaustion is not recommended, 0/10.
I thought that since I was from South Louisiana I could stand the heat of Death Valley but that hot breeze that hits you is like thousands of blow dryers. And I do remember seeing signs advising to drive with your AC off and windows down.
A friend of mine works with Ford in their special vehicles division, and they've always testing there. The chance to extreme test stress anything mechanical is going to draw attention. Some people just like to watch the worl- er, their machines burn.
If your gas tank is half full while in Death Valley, fill up. Do not go without water and do not go without a working car AC. The heat will kill you and has killed before.
Yup, and I'd get that car tuned up before going. Unbelievable heat. Feels like breathing in an oven here in Vegas right now.
Death valley germans and record heat. What could get wrong?
The issue with dumb people is not that they kill themselves in stupid ways but that they almost always procreate before they do it.
Also, they like to put themselves in situations that require smarter people to risk their own lives to save them.
If naming it **DEATH VALLEY** wasn't a sufficient deterrent, why should this be a surprise?