Hot temperatures are in the news with another round of record margin breaking numbers showing the hottest global temperatures. Even places that already endure sweltering heat are shuttering work for safety reasons such as Iraq, which is posting temperatures of 127°F amid other countries in the Middle East heat wave. Kuwait may have set a possible heat record (regionally) at 129°F.

Pause for a moment on Iraq and Kuwait. Baghdad has made the press before as the hottest city in the world but even those temperatures don't match nearly 15 years of reports from deployed soldiers. When the news of the peak heat rolled through Facebook's feed a few days back, veterans from a variety of Iraq deployments began chiming in about witnessing temperatures just shy of 140°F. A Slate article discusses the discrepancy as a result of consumer grade or cheap thermometers, exposure to direct sun, or thermal conduction from the surface it rested on.