When Is Hot Too Hot?

I think it was Friday I heard a blip about something that I had never thought about concerning hot weather.  Its well known that during heat waves more people end up in the hospital with heat related ailments.

Brown outs roll across the countryside because people are using their air conditioning and fans more so the demand for electricity escalates to the point that power plants can barely stay up with the demand.

People often say it is hot enough to cook eggs on the sidewalk during these heat waves.   Public safety often recommends that people stay home or at least hang out somewhere in the neighborhood.l  I usually head over to the mall and sit in Barnes and Nobel for several hours to use their internet and air conditioning.

This past Friday, on the news at the top of the hour, I heard a blurb about an airplane that ended up returning to its origination point because it was too hot to land.  I did know that planes do not fly once it gets below a certain temperature but apparently, they have an upper cut off too.

The temperature at the Phoenix airport was 117 degrees at the time.  The FAA has an upper limit of 120 degrees. Anything above that and planes cannot land.  This has to do with the engines and their operational limits .

In addition, the tarmac often begins softening at too high a temperature which makes it much more difficult for planes to land and take off.  I suspect the plane turned around because they were afraid they were not going to be able to take off again if they landed.  Imagine, the temperature being too hot for planes to land.  Unless the heatwave breaks, it appears more flights will be cancelled in the future.