Posted on 12/29/2025 12:36:01 PM PST by Red Badger
A new analysis of July temperatures in Death Valley between 1923 and 2024 suggests the world record near-surface air temperature of 134 F measured in July 1913 may be erroneous.
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Death Valley has held the record for the hottest air temperature ever measured near Earth's surface for 112 years, but now scientists are calling for the title to be rescinded.
According to U.S. Weather Bureau data, the air temperature at Greenland Ranch in Death Valley reached a scorching 134 degrees Fahrenheit (56.7 degrees Celsius) on July 10, 1913. This is still the highest air temperature on record, but its authenticity has been debated by meteorologists and climatologists, because — despite global warming — temperatures in the region have rarely reached 130 F (54.4 C) since 1913.
"I, along with many meteorologists and climatologists, have been quietly skeptical of the Death Valley world record our entire careers," Roy Spencer, a meteorologist and principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville who recently led a study about Death Valley's world record status, told Live Science in an email.
For the study, Spencer and his colleagues analyzed July temperatures recorded at stations within 155 miles (250 kilometers) of Greenland Ranch between 1923 and 2024. The stations were 3,000 to 3,700 feet (910 to 1,130 meters) above sea level while Greenland Ranch is 178 feet (54 m) below sea level, so the researchers adjusted the data for elevation. (These were the closest stations to the ranch and provided the most reliable long-term data.) The team then compared the values and examined high-elevation July temperatures from 1913 to estimate the temperature at Greenland Ranch on that day.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
There’s no “wind chill” above a certain temperature. It gets to be more like “friction heat.”
I lived in Phoenix for a time with a motorcycle, so I know what you’re describing.
😄😁😂😂🤣🤣🤣
People visiting Death Valley from Phoenix, Arizona say, “Damn, it’s hot here!”
I've been to the Outback...in March (late summer). Damn it was hot!
For decades a location in the middle of Libya was listed as having a temp of 136°F in the early 20th century, but they pulled it saying they couldn’t prove its accuracy.
So, if it DIDN’T reach 134F in 1913, where did all the icebergs and glaciers go?
I always thought one RIDES a motorcycle
I also have been there back in the 1990s. Fascinating place. Couldn’t find a place to stay in the Valley so I drove out of it at night towards the California side. One of the eeriest and lonely drives I’ve ever done. Going up a twisty mountain road and the then down into the adjacent valley. I was thinking this is where I could be abducted by aliens and no one would ever know. I was very happy to see some lights of civilization eventually. Fortunately I didn’t stay at the Bates Motel that night either.
Still, I'll probably continue to avoid placenames with "death" in 'em.
There has been some. The mile high glaciers covering the northern US melted, thankfully about 10 to 12,000 years ago. Ice Ages suck, near as I can figure.
Next headline:
“Climate Change Causes Human Error”
The internet tells me that the world’s highest recorded temperature was 136.4° F, taken on September 13, 1922, in the Sahara Desert at El Azizia, Libya, but there weren’t thermometers in every part of the Sahara to record temperatures that may have been even higher — and besides, everything the internet says is a lie.
Still damn hot whatever it was.
Two people died last year when it reached 127 degrees F. You are lucky to survive.
That's not hot.
THAT'S hot.
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