55°C ???

Greetings,
sickened by 44 degrees I wondered if it could get worse. Well, here an excerpt from Charles Sturt's diary during the lovely summer 1844 on his way to the eponymous Sturts Stony Desert and the (then) feared Simpson:
"The thermometer reading 131ºF {55°C} in the shade…the atmosphere was so dry that the drays all but fell to pieces, every screw in the various boxes was drawn, the horn handles of the instruments and the combs split up into fine laminae, the lead dropped out of the pencils, … the men’s hair and the wool on the sheep ceased to grow, and their finger nails became brittle as glass… terrific hot wind blew across the plains, with nothing to break its force. The thermometer, graduated up to 127ºF {52°C}, burst from the heat, and the ground was so hot that a match dropped upon it ignited immediately…’
And I do feel like above pencil with all sense dropping out of me.
Klaus and Rusty
www.oz-greetings.com.au
Nature, Wilderness & Geology

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