[fixermark]

He doesn't seem to be an experienced owner of a home outdoor thermometer though.

Or if he is, I need to know where he found one that goes to 452 degrees and why he even needs that much range. ;)

[squarefoot]

The thermometer sensor and circuitry might be perfectly ok, still the 452 number might be a single digit gone bonkers in the panel, so that data being transmitted (maybe also recorded?) is ok while the readout is plain wrong. A human acting according data being shown there might react very differently from someone reading the temperatures log. Sometimes software problems can be awfully subtle.

[navila17]

Digital thermometers usually have triple digits to be able to display numbers in the low 100's. I could see one of them failing in a weird way and displaying 452.

[depressed]

I was as confused as the other commentators by this post until I realized that fixermark is thinking of analog thermometers with a physical dial, while we (and probably the author as well) are envisioning electronic thermometers with digital displays.

[lepton]

BBQ lid? Many have thermometers that go higher than this (say, 700F), and they're often outdoors.

[darkpuma]

How else would you know there is a wildfire outside?