re: Baghdad...heat index was 159 degrees, air temperature of 120 degrees

You're obviously entitled to your own opinion, but for what it's worth I'm not just randomly throwing that out there. I was in country as well. It was certainly hotter there obviously, but it wasn't nearly as humid. Our thermometers (which could have been off I don't know) regularly recorded mid 130s during the summer.

It's just that the sweat won't evaporate here. You get all sticky and soaked way faster in a humid climate Imo and that's more miserable.