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Yesterday, the UK tentatively recorded the hottest temperatures since records began, breaking a record set just three years previously.
While it continues a worrying trend of increasing temperatures, there was one upside (which by no means cancels out the worries of the previous sentence): people were apparently able to fry eggs on the floor.
Recipe developer Georgia Levy left a frying pan to heat for an hour in the direct sun on a stone in her back garden, where the temperature had topped 40 degrees Celcius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). The egg then sizzled in the heat.
According to the Library of Congress, eggs need to reach a temperature of 70°C (158°F) to cook all the way through. They note that it's theoretically possible to heat an egg on a sidewalk, but due to the poor heat conductivity, it doesn't actually get hot enough. Metal in the Sun – such as the hood of your car, or the frying pan used here – is a much more realistic way of getting it done.
Levy's pan must be a good enough conductor of heat, however, given the results: a fairly tasty-looking (if perhaps underdone) egg.
