Temperatures in Death Valley, which lies on the border between central California and Nevada, reached 53.3°C. this Sunday in the Furnace Creek area, the National Weather Service said.
The highest temperature ever recorded was 56.6 degrees in Furnace Creek in July 1913, said Randy Ceverny of the World Meteorological Organization, which is considered the world record holder. Temperatures of 54.4°C or higher have only been recorded a few times on Earth, mostly in Death Valley.
Several points on the planet have recorded temperature records amid a heatwave that burns almost the entire planet. “With global warming, these temperatures are becoming more likely to occur,” said Ceverny, records coordinator for the World Meteorological Organization.
On Sunday, Death Valley meteorologists observed high clouds in the area that could keep temperatures under control. “The alltime record seems set today,” said Matt Woods, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Las Vegas office that monitors Death Valley.
“Longterm: Global warming is leading to higher and more frequent temperature extremes. Short Term: This particular weekend is being driven by an extremely strong high pressure pattern over the western United States.”
There were also several high temperatures in Europe this summer. Photo: Yiannis Kourtoglou/Portal
The heatwave is just part of the extreme weather that hit the US over the weekend. Four people died in Pennsylvania on Saturday, when heavy rains caused a flash flood that washed away several cars. Three other people, including a 9monthold boy and a 2yearold girl, remained missing.
In Vermont, officials were concerned about landslides as rain continued after days of flooding. The brutal temperatures in Death Valley come amid a period of intense heat that has put about a third of Americans under some type of heat warning or alert.
Heat waves are visually not as dramatic as other natural disasters. but experts say they are deadlier. A heatwave in parts of the US South and Midwest killed more than a dozen people last month.
Westerners have long been accustomed to extreme temperatures, and the heat appeared to cause minimal disruption in California over the weekend. Local governments have opened cooling centers for people who don’t have access to air conditioning to stay cool.
The heat forced officials to cancel horse racing at the California State Fair’s opening weekend, while urging fairgoers to drink up and take refuge in one of the seven airconditioned buildings.
In Las Vegas, temperatures reached 46.1C early Sunday afternoon, nearing the desert city’s alltime record of 46.1C.
The temperature in Death Valley (USA) exceeds 53°C and approaches a 110year record. Photo: Jorge Garcia/Portal
In Phoenix, temperatures hit 44.4C early Sunday afternoon, the 17th straight day that temperatures have been recorded above 43C. The record is 18 consecutive days and was set in June 1974. Phoenix is on track to break that record next Tuesday, said Gabriel Lojero, a weather forecaster with the National Weather Service.
Heat records are being broken in the southern United States, from California to Florida. But it goes beyond that. It’s worldwide, with Devastating heat hits Europealong with dramatic flooding in the Northeast US, India, Japan and China.
According to the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer, the world was in an unfamiliar hot zone for most of July. June was also the hottest June on record, according to several weather agencies.
Scientists believe there is a good chance that 2023 will be the warmest year on record, as measurements date back to the mid19th century. Death Valley dominates global heat records.
Not only is it hot in the valley, it stays extremely hot. Some meteorologists have questioned the accuracy of the 110year heat record in Death Valley. Climate historian Christopher Burt disputes this for several reasons, which he explained in a blog post a few years ago.
The two highest temperatures ever recorded were 56.6 °C in Death Valley in 1913 and 55 °C in Tunisia in July 1931.
Burt, climate historian at The Weather Company, disputes both measurements and cites 54.4 °C in July 2021 in Death Valley as the hottest recorded temperature on earth.
“130 °C is very rare, if not unique,” Burt said. In July 2021 and August 2020, Death Valley recorded a reading of 54.4°C, but both are still awaiting confirmation.
So far, scientists haven’t found any problems, but they haven’t completed the analysis yet, said Russ Vose, NOAA’s chief of climate analysis. “There are other places similar to Death Valley that can be as hot as the Lut Desert in Iran, but like Death Valley, they are uninhabited and there are no measurements,” Burt said.
The difference is that in 1911 someone decided to install an official weather station in Death Valley, he added. A combination of longterm humancaused climate changes due to the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas is causing the world to get warmer every decade, with peaks and troughs year after year.
Many of these ups and downs are caused by the natural cycle of El Niño and La Niña. A cycle of El Ninothe warming of part of the Pacific Ocean affecting global climate is adding even more heat to already rising temperatures.
Scientists like Vose say most of the record warming the Earth is currently experiencing is due to humancaused global warming, in part because this El Niño only started a few months ago and is still weak to moderate. The peak is not expected to be reached until winter, so scientists are assuming that next year will be even warmer than this year. /AP