mono-stereo looks boss. 52c sounds bonkers, at what temp do humans start to cook? Surely that’s gotta be close.
It’s quite difficult to find a direct answer to that question, but the temperature at which humans can survive at depends also on the humidity, not just the air temperature.
Humans are able to keep themselves cool even in high temperatures through sweating. However, if humidity is also relatively high it makes it more difficult for us to sweat and regulate our core body temperature and so we are at greater risk of dying from hyperthermia. Normal core human body temperature is kept to about 37C on a standard thermometer; if it rises to about 40C+ it’ll soon be fatal.
At 52C environmental dry bulb temperature humans can survive indefinitely if the humidity is about 10% and below. But if the humidity is at about 50% and above you’ll probably survive less than an hour.
Regardless of the external temperature though, you’ll typically die of hyperthermia before you really have the opportunity to “cook”.
The combination of heat and humidity as suggested by the chart above is measured separately by the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (as opposed to the Dry Bulb Temperature which is measured by a basic thermometer). Human skin needs to be below a Wet Bulb Globe Temp of 35C to dissipate its body heat, or else you start getting organ failure.
Death Valley’s humidity is typically at only about 5%, and so its Wet Bulb Globe Temperature is at around 25C.
The two regions on Earth with typically the highest Wet Bulb Globe Temperatures are the shores of the Gulf and the Indus Valley in Pakistan.
“Jacobabad [a city in Pakistan’s Indus Valley] crossed the 35C wet bulb threshold in July 1987, then again in June 2005, June 2010 and July 2012. Each time the boundary may have been breached for only a few hours, but a three-day average temperature has been recorded hovering around 34C in June 2010, June 2001 and July 2012. The dry bulb temperature is often over 50C in the summer.”
Ras al Khaimah, north east of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, and Dhahran (both on the Gulf shore) are the other places on Earth found to have both hit 35C+ wet bulb temps which can be soon fatal.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/hotter-human-body-can-handle-pakistan-city-broils-worlds-highest/
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/645732-highest-dewpoint-temperature
https://theconversation.com/how-heat-can-make-your-body-melt-down-from-the-inside-out-22042
https://www.nib.com.au/the-checkup/healthy-living/what's-the-hottest-temperature-the-human-body-can-cope-with
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24183215
https://www.businessinsider.com/dhahran-saudi-arabia-most-intolerabe-heat-climate-change-2015-10
