Talk about a bad day

[Dave Grubb]

This guy might deserve a pass (from the Darwin awards) since Belgium has nothing close to this.

How hot was it in Death Valley over the weekend?

It was so hot that a European tourist melted the skin off his feet when he lost his flip-flops in the sand dunes, park officials said.

To make matters worse, the temperatures made the air too thin for a helicopter to fly in and help him.

The experience of the tourist, whose name was not released, is a painful reminder that extreme dangers can emerge in unexpected ways at one of the hottest places on earth in the summertime.

According to a National Park Service news release, the 42-year-old Belgian tourist was taking a short walk Saturday in the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes in 123-degree heat when he either broke or lost his flip-flops, putting his feet into direct contact with the desert ground. The result: third-degree burns.

"The skin was melted off his foot," said Death Valley National Park Service Ranger Gia Ponce. "The ground can be much hotter — 170, 180 [degrees]. Sometimes up into the 200 range."

[UTAH]

As I recall, a group of motorcycle riders recently traversed Death Valley. One of them died from the heat and a couple of others were hospitalized. The same issue of, "Too Hot To Fly," hindered their rescue.

If there's extreme weather, it seems like some humans will take that on as a challenge. We may be sentient - but it doesn't mean we're smart.

Hunter

[Dave Grubb]

I have experienced the "to hot to fly" in helicopters. Unlike commercial aircraft pilots who know they can't fly based on established limits which combine air craft weight, air temp and altitude---helicopters (the ones I knew) had no such sophistication.

They just "stalled"---and it was a shaky experience. My experience with it was trying to fly over a mountain and the combination of temperature and altitude prevented that. When you reached the limit it felt like a 2-wheel drive car with positraction, intermittently grabbing and switching from one wheel to the other.