Humans can adapt to live in locations where the monthly average is over 40°C, and as low as -50°C. That’s a 90°C range. The world has warmed by 0.9°C in 100 years (or less, depending on adjustments). This warming was so dangerous that global population only expanded from 1.7 to 7 billion.
Now, if the IPCC are right, we might heat up by another half a degree by 2100 — shifting those extremes from -49°C up to 41°C.
Prof. Andy Pitman, one of Australia’s leading climate scientists, responds to this risk with all the usual careful analysis we’ve come to expect from mainstream climate experts. Here’s another “children won’t know what snow is” type of Global Panic quote:
“I expect by 2050 … people just don’t go outside,”
— Professor Andy Pitman, director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science at UNSW.
The hottest inhabited places on Earth
There is a lot of competition for the “hottest” town on Earth.
Marble Bar, Western Australia
Dallol, Ethiopia has an average July monthly high of 45.6°C (114F), so it is usually top of the “hottest inhabited location lists”. But is practically a ghost town so it doesn’t quite count, though miners lived there from 1960-1966 and the 45°C record heat was recorded during these years. The annual average year-long maximum temperature is 41 °C (105 °F). Summer nights in Dallol get down to 32°C (90F).
Marble Bar, West Australia, has an average of 41°C in January for the last 100 years. It holds a world record for having 160 days above 100F from 31 October 1923 to 7 April 1924. About 200 people live there. (See more Marble Bar photos.)
In Kebili, Tunisia, the average July max is 41.7°C and sixty thousand people still live there, so I think it gets the medal for “hottest inhabited town”. Curiously in this warming world, Wikimedia notes that the hottest temperatures (all 50°+C) were recorded from 1888 – 1930, and not since. Presumably those old thermometers needed adjustment.
Humans, apparently, have lived in area’s around Kebili for at least 2,000 years, and maybe, possibly, 200,000 years. (I expect they are probably used to it by now.)
The coldest inhabited places
Oymykon, Russia
Five hundred people live in Oymyakon, Siberia, Russia, almost in the Arctic circle at 63N. The average temperature for January is -50°C. The village is called the coldest permanently inhabited settlement in the world, and there doesn’t seem to be anyone arguing about it. (Though technically, the research station at Vostok, Antarctica has a monthly average of – 68°C, and about a dozen people manage to live there.) In winter in Oymakon, there are only three hours of sun a day, and people have to heat their garages, or run their cars 24/7 to keep them usable.
The coldest ever temperature recorded in Oymyakon was -71.2°C. Read more at Dailymail, and Wired.
The photo (and more glorious ones) was by Amos Chapple.
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PS: Great minds think alike: I did the first draft of this January 17th, but spookily ROM in comments had the exact same thought 2015/06/05 and 2015/04/17.
PPS: There must be someone out there with a really good shot of Marble Bar heat. Please send in that better photo…
Top Photo: Marble Bar, WA. Exploreroz Member Ups and Downs.
UPDATE: h/t to Marakai for the following photo and links to Marble Bar shots.
Welcome to Marble Bar | Tripmondo Photo: Davidmemb