HOW HOT IS IT IN IRAQ? Jeff Emanuel offers a physics lesson.

But which way do these observations cut in the global warming debate? Is David Sessions a denialist?

UPDATE: Greyhawk weighs in from the field.

Official temperature is taken IN THE SHADE, using very damned expensive equipment. Official temperatures for Baghdad (taken by US Air Force meteorologists at the Airport in the shade) in late July and early August peak in the late afternoon between 115-120 EVERY DAY – IN THE SHADE. The record temperature in the shade is indeed 124 degrees. Now that September is here it’s a bit more variable, highs ranging from as low as 102 to about 108 over the past week or two. In the early morning hours we shiver as the temperatures plunge into the upper 70s.

Did I mention the shade part? Out in the desert or the middle of a city in the direct sunlight in July? Or in the back of a closed vehicle or an aircraft? There it’s really hot, and 130 on a cool day, maybe.

But here’s what I call hot: when you step out of a porta potty after a 5 minute visit into the direct sunlight of a July afternoon in Iraq and think “gosh it’s nice and cool out here” – then you know that inside that porta potty was the HOTTEST EFFING PLACE ON THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH.

I’ll bet it doesn’t smell very good, either. I hope Sessions doesn’t blog about that.