Death Valley World Record Temperature

[Preston]

I thought some of you might find this ineresting...

It's official--Death Valley holds the record for the highest recorded ambient air temperature on Earth!

From Fox News, 09/14/12--

"El Azizia, Libya, no longer holds the title for "world's hottest temperature." Today, that record passes to Death Valley, Calif.

No, a heat wave didn't pass through the notoriously baking area yesterday. The new record-setting temperature of 134 degrees Fahrenheit (56.7 degrees Celsius) was actually recorded in Death Valley on July 10, 1913.

The temperature is only now being recognized because the previous record high temperature of 136.4 F (58 C) in El Azizia has been overturned by the World Meteorological Organization after an in-depth investigation by a team of meteorologists. The record temperature had long been thought dubious, but this new study has finally made the persuading case to overturn it, 90 years to the day after it was made."

Read the entire article, here.

Pretty cool, eh?

--P

[Mike Anderson]

must....resist....political....joke. must...resist....

[Drew Wiley]

Depends on the rules. The Furnace Creek recordings are done in the shade, and one can reasonably assume that things out on a salt pan in direct sun at Badwater can get quite a bit hotter. For me, Death Valley starts getting uncomfortably hot about mid February.
But that's because I've now lived in coastal fog for all my adult life; and here anything over 55 degrees in summer is considered a heat wave!

[Heroique]

Now that’s pretty hot for such a cool place!

DV is pretty low too, but I understand it’s rising in the rankings.

Earth’s lowest elevations:

1. Dead Sea (Jordan/Israel) -1360 feet (-414 m)
2. Lake Assal (Djibouti, Africa) -509 feet (-155 m)
3. Turpan Pendi (China) -505 feet (-154 m)
4. Qattara Depression (Egypt) -435 feet (-133 m)
5. Vpadina Kaundy (Kazakstan) -433 ft (-132 m)
6. Denakil (Ethiopia) -410 ft (-125 m)
7. Laguna del Carbón (Argentina) -344 ft (-105 m)
8. Death Valley (United States) -282 ft (-86 m)
9. Vpadina Akchanaya (Turkmenistan) -266 ft (-81 m)
10. Salton Sea (California) -227 ft (-69 m)
11. Sebkhet Tah (Morroco) -180 ft (-55 m)
12. Sabkhat Ghuzayyil (Libya) -154 ft (-47 m)
13. Lago Enriquillo (Dominican Republic) -151 ft (-46 m)
14. Salinas Chicas (Argentina) -131 ft (-40 m)
15. Caspian Sea (Central Asia) -92 ft (-28 m)
16. Lake Eyre (Australia) -49 ft (-15 m)

[Vaughn]

My ex-wife, an Aussie, always complained about the cold of coastal Humboldt County -- until a few trips back home when she discovered she no longer liked the heat.

This year Humboldt County had its coldest July in decades -- I was up in Eastern WA in the heat,but some nice thunderstorms to cool things off -- and also down in So Cal at the beach (left right before their big heat wave!)

I have hiked around with the 8x10 in 100F+ temps...interesting, and got some good images. This one was at about 105 to 110F in Eastern WA. One good thing, it was too hot for the rattlesnakes to be out and about

Branches, Dry Falls, WA
Scanned 4x10 carbon print

[Drew Wiley]

Thanks for sharing the shot, Vaughn. On my hike last month I could be worried about heat
exhaustion or hypothermia on the same day, depending on the elevation or time of day.
When it started raining up high I put on my gear then was overheating; and the very moment I had the Parka repacked it started raining so hard I was almost drenched merely
pulling it out of the pack again. Then way down there in the bottom of the canyon at about 7000ft elevation, it was warm enough for a rattlesnake to be right in the camp in
the evening. He didn't get a very nice welcome. Even at the higher elevations I had to sleep with the bag unzipped all nite. Quite a bit different from last summer when it snowed every day. When I was a kid I was very heat tolerant, and would take off on an 18 mile
hike in 110 degree heat without even a canteen. Death Valley in May felt comfortable. No
more. I'm spoiled. Got my office heater on right now!

[RichardSperry]

must....resist....political....joke. must...resist....

Since when did it become a good idea to mix science and politics?

Something either is or it is not. Makes no difference as to who "believes" or wants something.

All the scientists, doctors, and laypeople once KNEW that stress alone causes ulcers. They were all wrong. At one time, only two people believed that they were caused by bacteria.

Were they wrong because everyone else, including all the smart people, "believed" otherwise?

No. Because they set up a repeatable experiment that everyone could understand with data that anyone could duplicate. Now it's known(and not believed) that bacteria causes stomach ulcers.

If the people in your untold joke were to do that, then they would not have to rely on politics or belief to make their argument.

[ROL]

Depends on the rules. The Furnace Creek recordings are done in the shade...

Not really. All official meteorological temperature readings are taken in the shade, always, in a wind protected shelter – those are the rules. And at a specified height of 1 meter.

[Drew Wiley]

Well, since those kind of official monitoring stations didn't exist way out on the saltpan
at a distinctly lower elevation in the first place, we really don't know how hot it got, do we? There are also reflective differences between different ground materials which skew
the formula too. And I don't imagine it would be much fun stomping around Darfur or whatever pounding official meterological stations in the ground either. All I know is that if
it's hot enough the melt the rubber on your shoe soles, it's not some place I'm gonna hang
around!