I spent years in / travelling around the Middle East. (mainly Bahrain, Saudi, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Iraq) ...... there were days when I'd have dreamed of it 'only' being 44' The hottest I saw was 56' in Bahrain (CDs were ok in the car but you had to take the cases out or they started melting), where the humidity is also so high you get water running down windows, although it's not raining.

But the only place I've ever had heat-stroke was at Eastnor Castle during a LR show  2010 Range Rover Autobiography TDV8 Santorini Black
2010 Range Rover Autobiography TDV8 Zermatt Silver [Gone]
2003 Range Rover HSE Oslo Blue [Gone]
1985 Camel Trophy 90 (Netherlands Team Vehicle) [Gone]
1990 Camel Trophy 127 (Workshop Vehicle) [Gone]
1989 Camel Trophy 110 (Workshop Vehicle) [Gone]
1998 Camel Trophy Freelander (South African Team Vehicle)
1995 Camel Trophy Discovery 300Tdi (Raft Unit) [Gone]

Very similar to me, transited through and worked in ME quite often, the humidity is unexplainable to those that haven't experienced it, mid 50's just means you adjust your working hours to suit, it wasn't unusual to be out at daybreak until 10 - 11 o'clock then spend the middle of the day in a thick walled, tiled, downstairs area (in UK it'd be called a 'bar') taking in refreshments until it was cool enough to resume 'work' - which typically was daybreak the next day.... Then some miserable sod sent us to somewhere nearly as hot but with an elevated altitude -and no 'bar'.

My L322 in Bahrain had a heated screen. I didn't actually realise when I bought it (because why would you look for one over there!). Had a chuckle when I realised & thought one day in the past a guy in Solihull had looked at a build sheet and thought "WTF?".

But, when the weather changed (cant really call it the start of 'winter'). The humidity went so high that you got condensation on the outside of car windows. Not a problem you'd think, flick the wipers on to clear it. But it reformed so quickly you just got a strip about an inch wide 'following' the wiper, was no good for driving. Heated windscreen on & about 15 seconds later lovely & clear again. The ac in that car was like ice, which of course contributes to the temp differential \ tendency for condensation.

Where in the Middle East were you & what sort of industry? I was working for a cargo airline, most of the first flights of a day left at around 5am so the first trip of the day was bearable usually, although depending on where you were going the turnaround & return could be getting warm & if there were a second trip it would be like a furnace. If you hit lucky with the schedules though then by 10am you'd be back & finished for the day, although that was pretty rare. 2010 Range Rover Autobiography TDV8 Santorini Black
2010 Range Rover Autobiography TDV8 Zermatt Silver [Gone]
2003 Range Rover HSE Oslo Blue [Gone]
1985 Camel Trophy 90 (Netherlands Team Vehicle) [Gone]
1990 Camel Trophy 127 (Workshop Vehicle) [Gone]
1989 Camel Trophy 110 (Workshop Vehicle) [Gone]
1998 Camel Trophy Freelander (South African Team Vehicle)
1995 Camel Trophy Discovery 300Tdi (Raft Unit) [Gone]

I was in & out of there 2001 - 2006, similar work but air cargo requiring dip. clearance, not flight crew- more 'self-loading cargo' to take care of the non-self loading cargo.
Also in most of 'dark Africa' prior to that, being flown around in things that shouldn't be able to....

I remember the transit areas in Qatar, big sheds with mobile A/C the size of a 500kW generator (probably supplied by one around the corner) and additional distribution fans the size of a EMB 120, no chance of getting a kip unless you had ear defenders on and on the off-chance of needing food / pee / welfare phones, you had to endure the heat & humidity, when you got back to the transit area, hypothermia was a real possibility due to the amount of water your clothing had absorbed.
Happy days!

We had lots of issues with rotaries not being able to climb high enough due to the ambient temperature, to the point where we sometimes had to debus, carry kit to the other side of the peak and rebus on the other side... sometimes only 50-100m vertically, a hell of a lot more on foot!

Phoenix wrote:

I've only ever known heated seats in the rear & climate seats in the front...

RJ and phoenix, i bet that was a killer. I've never been one for heat, I'm actually hot blooded, hardly feel the cold. I remember l once i was collecting a gearbox for the us defence from ornskoldvik right up in northern Sweden in the middle of winter once. All i had on was jeans, cat boots and a coat and yet it didn't feel as cold to me even though it was -28. Walking 300 metres to the restaurant from the hotel i was getting some really funny looks from those who dressed up like Eskimos. I wasn't that far from the outskirts of the Arctic circle. So living/working in the middle East is a no go for me. And yet the missus still gives me grief when i have the Aircon on full in the car and it's only 15c outside

Phoenix wrote:

more 'self-loading cargo' to take care of the non-self loading cargo.

Phoenix wrote:

Also in most of 'dark Africa' prior to that, being flown around in things that shouldn't be able to....

Phoenix wrote:

I remember the transit areas in Qatar, big sheds with mobile A/C the size of a 500kW generator (probably supplied by one around the corner) and additional distribution fans the size of a EMB 120, no chance of getting a kip unless you had ear defenders on and on the off-chance of needing food / pee / welfare phones, you had to endure the heat & humidity, when you got back to the transit area, hypothermia was a real possibility due to the amount of water your clothing had absorbed.

Al Udeid? I used to look forward to trips there, usually scrounged breakfast in the US mess (just gotta forgive them for what they refer to as bacon haha). Last time I was there was in a B1900 at night from the old airport at Doha, we had a total electrical failure, skipper was flying with the FO shining a torch at the standby artificial horizon. After about 10 minutes everything turned on again (so, just like a Land Rover!!)....... so we got into Al Udeid & waited there until daylight, couldn't repeat the issue so back in & off on the next leg

Phoenix wrote:

We had lots of issues with rotaries not being able to climb high enough due to the ambient temperature, to the point where we sometimes had to debus, carry kit to the other side of the peak and rebus on the other side... sometimes only 50-100m vertically, a hell of a lot more on foot!

Barmybrummie, I actually found I became more used to it being cold...... presumably as a result of spending so much time with the air con on. On trips home I'd go to LR shows and be sat in a t-shirt while others were shivering with coats on.

It seemed to work the other way too though (maybe seasonal?)..... as I reversed out of the garage one morning to head to work I thought it seemed a bit cold, so I put the heater on & looked at the temp display....... 26' haha 2010 Range Rover Autobiography TDV8 Santorini Black
2010 Range Rover Autobiography TDV8 Zermatt Silver [Gone]
2003 Range Rover HSE Oslo Blue [Gone]
1985 Camel Trophy 90 (Netherlands Team Vehicle) [Gone]
1990 Camel Trophy 127 (Workshop Vehicle) [Gone]
1989 Camel Trophy 110 (Workshop Vehicle) [Gone]
1998 Camel Trophy Freelander (South African Team Vehicle)
1995 Camel Trophy Discovery 300Tdi (Raft Unit) [Gone]

Funnily enough, I'm fine with extremes - I did a three week training ex. on Sjuøyane (Svalbard, off Norway), the main thing I learnt was that cold dehydrates quicker than heat.... a month later I was in eastern Europe with -31deg.C. daytime ambient with -56deg. C. overnight windchill temperatures. The biggest problem was to keep ice flakes from forming in our tea - oh, and keeping the generators from overheating due to the ingest of frost....

Most people suffer because the want indoor temperatures significantly lower or higher than the outdoors, 2 or 3 degrees lower or 10 degrees higher is enough, any more and as soon as you go outside the differential will hit you like a brick wall.