[Slick]

some approximate relative "hotness" scales for comparison:

the hottest shower or hot tub you have probably ever been in would be around 107 or so,

at around 140, you can briefly touch something but can't stay in contact without serious pain. significant contact can cause 1st degree burns. water at 140 will slightly steam at room temperature/pressure even though it is well below its boiling point

at 180, there is significant steaming, but no boiling yet. this will cause easily 1st or 2nd degree burns if liquid is spilled on the skin

at 212, water boils. this assumes 1 atmosphere of pressure; i.e. at sea level. water will boil at temps less than 212 at higher elevations. contact with boiling water obviously will lead to 2nd degree burns for minimal contact and 3rd degree burns for significant contact

at 1 atm of pressure, once water starts boiling, it will stay at 212 degrees no matter how much heat you put into it. adding heat to boiling water will just make it boil more violently. the steam comes off at 212 degrees as well. this is known as saturated boiling. the temperature of the container won't go over 212 until all the water boils away. There is a rare exception to this which is not normally encountered in everyday life, but you can actually get a pan/pot to exceed 212 if a large enough amount of heat is applied such that the entire surface becomes steam-blanketed. you can see this in small quantities when a drop of water "dances" on a hot griddle. you need at least several degrees above 212 before this will happen. what actually is happening is that the liquid water can't make contact with the griddle because the radiant heat is causing the bottom of the droplet to flash to steam with enough energy to keep the droplet suspended.

there are several stages of boiling water: subcooled nucleate boiling, saturated nucleate boiling, film boiling, and others, but let's not get into a lecture on heat transfer and phase transformation of water.