Does This Map Feel Hot to You?
Did it get so hot this weekend that you tried making breakfast outside? That you can fry an egg on the sidewalk is generally debunked (at least, for now), but it doesn't mean the land surface temperatures weren't hitting high notes. Here in Washington, D.C., it got so hot it caused one of our metro trains to derail from to a "heat kink" in the tracks. Above is a map from the MODIS instrument on the Terra Earth Observing satellite. MODIS -- the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer -- views the entire planet every couple of days, which helps scientists closely monitor changes in the land and lower atmosphere. This map shows the change in land surface temperature, comparing one day -- Friday, July 6 -- to the average temperature of the same day over the last decade. Naturally, redder areas show where it was hotter than the average, and bluer areas are cooler than average.
NASA / Terra / MODIS
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