Yeah, you're right. Which only makes it worse. My original point was that those in Anchorage suffer just like those in Phoenix. But perhaps those in Phoenix have comfy, air-conditioned batteries but persistent storage that fries in the heat.

You got it backwards. Flash like this is going to wear out several times faster at -20 °C versus, say, 50 °C or 70 °C.

Do you have a source for that? That is counter to everything I've learned.

Here is a pretty thorough page from national instruments that agrees with what I stated: https://www.ni.com/en-us/support/documentation/supplemental/... (look at the "calculating drive endurance" section in particular).