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not everything can be learned from a book

By Jeff Emanuel Posted in embedded reporting | Slate | War — Comments (19) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Slate.com's David Sessions picked today of all days to type out a little piece called "How Hot Is Iraq?: Why does everyone think it's 130 degrees?" (h/t Dan McLaughlin). The apparent impetus for this is a McCain speech, in which the Senator referred to "U.S. soldiers...carrying 40 pounds of body armor in 130-degree temperatures" -- something which Sessions absolutely must disprove.

So, he sets out to do so - and reinforces the fact that booksmarts are only applicable, well, inside.

Read on . . .

He says:

Run a quick Google News search, and you'll find numerous references to Iraq's sweltering "130-degree" weather. It's in the Philadelphia Daily News, the Providence Journal, the Tucson Citizen, Wired, and even on military blogs. But according to this government Web site, the highest temperature ever recorded in Asia is 124 degrees—in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. So, how hot does it really get in Iraq?

The temperature never breaks 130 degrees, according to official climate records. A 2007 Air Force Weather Agency report on Iraq's summer weather also marks the record at 124 degrees, with mean highs for July and August at 110 degrees. And Iraq is always dry, so the heat index won't be much higher than the actual temperature.

Okay, to that last sentence: someone has clearly never lived near the desert, nor has said someone paid attention to the history of civilization whatsoever.

What am I getting at with that last? Well, you see, throughout the history of civilization, cities have popped up primarily in two areas: (1) on trading routes, and (2) ON RIVERS. Take a look at the map of Iraq at right (click for full size). Notice something? That's right -- almost every major city is on a river. I'm currently in Samarra (just above Baghdad, in the eastern Tigris River Valley), which is on the River -- and guess what? It's humid as crap here! (So much for "Iraq is always dry, so the heat index won't be much higher than the actual temperature.") Not only that, but our thermometers (which measure temperature, not heat index) regularly read into the 110s and 120s -- and the temperature is cooler now than it was during July and August.

But Sessions has a reason for that (including why it is, of course, incorrect):

Then why do so many people talk like 130-degree temperatures are a daily occurrence in Iraq? Bad equipment, for one thing. Soldiers and travelers often measure the temperature with personal thermometers, which tend to give inaccurate readings. Command posts sometimes place thermometers on their outside walls or other locations within their encampments, but these thermometers are also cheap and unscientific; one solider described them as the kind of thing you'd pick up from Wal-Mart or see in someone's garden.

Okay, point there -- it is, in fact, a plastic Wal-Mart style analog thermometer, and it is nailed to the outside of the Patrol Base here (albeit in a breezeway -- something which matters if you read the next paragraph).

But even a perfectly functioning thermometer, if placed on a solid surface, is likely to deliver higher readings than one set up in an open, breezy area. In general, a solid object absorbs more heat than an equivalent volume of air and can rise to a higher temperature given the same amount of sunlight. An instrument placed on sand or concrete will absorb heat from that surface—obscuring (and inflating) the actual air temperature. So, depending on where it's sitting, a surface thermometer can be off by more than 10 degrees. That's why professional meteorologists prefer to measure the temperature in a ventilated location, and never set up their instruments on heat-conducting surfaces like sand, concrete, or asphalt.

(Emphasis added) And here's where Captain Ivory Tower loses his way even more. Guess what, Mr. Sessions?

A soldier in 40-50 lbs of armor AND ammo AND long sleeves and pants AND helmet AND gloves AND knee pads AND boots who is carrying a rifle AND carrying 10 lbs of water IS "a solid object." Furthermore, said soldier DOES operate on "heat-conducting surfaces like sand, concrete, or asphalt," NOT "in a ventilated location" -- oh, and is either standing or moving while doing so, as well.

The effective temperature to a soldier here is much more like 145-150 degrees during the peak of summer -- not 130 or 124.

Feel free to leave your Ivory Library and actually check it out some time, David Sessions.