Ambient temperature

Ambient temperature is the temperature of the surroundings. The term is sometimes used interchangeably with room temperature, but this is only appropriate for certain types of laboratory science. "Ambient temperature" is a term that may be applied to the outdoors or to any place. Even once the context has been specified, "ambient temperature" may refer to no particular temperature. The ambient temperature of a place may vary in time as well as space. The temperature at a certain lattitude and longitude in the Sahara desert will depend on whether it is night or day, windy or still, whether one's thermometer is one centimeter or one kilometer above the ground, etc. In reporting experiments, researchers often use "ambient temperature" in effect to say, "We did not measure the temperature--it was what it was. You've been to the Sahara, haven't you?"