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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Arizona is so hot right now planes can't take off and plastic and paint is melting
2017-06-26
[Olympian] Arizona is no stranger to heat waves. But even by natives’ own high standards, the past week has been scorching.

The Guinness World Record for hottest temperature ever recorded is 134 degrees Fahrenheit. In Phoenix and Tempe, Arizona, it’s touched 119 degrees and just barely gone below 90 at any point over the past week, according to the National Weather Service.

It’s been so hot that regional flights in Phoenix have been canceled, because some planes cannot be operated in the excessive heat, according to the Washington Post.

And according to social media users, the heat has made some strange things happen on the ground, including melting mailboxes, actual cookies baked in a car and drivers busting out oven mitts just to grab the steering wheel.
Posted by:Besoeker

#11  ..its the Wild West, you understand. And if you do live in ABQ, it is.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2017-06-26 15:01  

#10  Boot Hill
Posted by: Frank G   2017-06-26 12:59  

#9  the boots' glue had melted & my boots lost their soles

Did they go to boot heaven?
Posted by: gorb   2017-06-26 12:45  

#8  One hot summer afternoon in ABQ I left my hiking boots in my trunk, when i retrieved them, some of the boots' glue had melted & my boots lost their soles.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2017-06-26 12:19  

#7  The Olympian pushing the global warming meme?
Posted by: JohnQC   2017-06-26 11:19  

#6  "It’s so damn hot, I saw little guys, their orange robes burst into flames."
Posted by: gorb   2017-06-26 10:43  

#5  There are a lot of reasons why they cant fly. But For the airlines it is usually a flight manual issue at these temps. The performance charts on most of the older regional aircraft only show operations at under 120 degrees. You cant operate the aircraft outside of the performance charts. The aircraft might be well within its capability, but if the performance charts don't go that high they cant legally fly. The asking passengers to get off the plane have more to do with trading weight for fuel, so it depends more on the leg of the flight and the temp.
Posted by: 49 Pan   2017-06-26 10:35  

#4  It doesn't need to be nearly that hot to disrupt air travel. I was flying White Plains to Charlotte a few years ago on a regional jet, which needed a full fuel load for the trip; temperature was about 90, and significantly hotter than predicted; they had to convince/coerce 6 people to get off so the plane would be light enough to have enough lift from the hotter air to take off.
Posted by: Glenmore   2017-06-26 09:56  

#3  One very hot day in South Alabama a friend and I took almost all the runway to land a piper cub. Too much hot air creating up-draft.
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2017-06-26 09:37  

#2  I lived there 20 years ago - no, make that 30 - and 115 was not uncommon. My kid's plastic squirt gun deformed (not melted) on the dashboard while we were shopping. [yawn] More 'death by global warming'.

Higher heat = lower air density = less lift. WIRED link, but the bottom line is way down at the bottom
Posted by: Bobby   2017-06-26 07:35  

#1  But its a "dry heat". I know one person who used to be a aircraft maintenence boss at O'Hare. He told me the pbolem is the tires on the aircraft can't handle the heat on take offs
Posted by: Cheaderhead   2017-06-26 05:57  

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