Choosing equipment in a country that measured 50.5 degrees
Silopi recorded 50.5 °C on 25 July 2025. ATP classes are defined at 30 °C outside air; at 50 degrees the heat entering a container nearly doubles, and the plate freezer reaches its limit too.
21 May 2026·Updated 28 September 2026
Short answer
In extreme heat the routine changes rather than the container: for a 4-degree load, the heat entering at 50 degrees outside is about 1.8 times that at 30 degrees, and more eutectic plates cover the difference. The plate's melting point stays matched to the product's band, loading moves to early morning and full containers wait in the shade. The climate class of the freezer that freezes the plates is checked too, since even the widest class, T, is defined only up to 43 °C ambient.
The Turkish State Meteorological Service logged the 50.5 °C measured in Silopi on 25 July 2025 as the national temperature record; the same year 191 stations broke their own maximum records. The ATP class of insulated equipment with a cold source, however, is defined at a mean outside temperature of +30 °C.
Heat entering through the wall grows with the gap between inside and outside. For a 4-degree load that gap is 26 degrees in 30-degree air and 46 degrees at 50; the heat the plates must absorb rises to about 1.8 times. On such days the melting point is not lowered, because that can freeze the product; the plate count goes up, loading moves to early morning and full containers wait in the shade. A container standing in the sun has an outer surface clearly hotter than the air.
