From NOAA/NWS Western Regional Headquarters, something that makes me wonder if they’ll have a similar celebration of the coldest temperature in the USA of −79.8 °F (−62.1 °C) recorded in Prospect Creek, Alaska on January 23rd, 1975, or the coldest temperature on Earth of −128.6 °F ( −89.2 °C ) at the Soviet Vostok Station in Antarctica, on July 21st, 1983. Somehow, I doubt it.
They offer this once in a lifetime event (open to the public):
Join the Celebration:
On July 10th, 1913 the weather observer at Greenland Ranch in Death Valley, California recorded a high temperature of 134°F (56.7°C). This is the highest reliably recorded air temperature on Earth. Please join us at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center on Wednesday, July 10th, 2013 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the world record high temperature. By attending you will:
- Experience the conditions that make Death Valley the hottest place on Earth.
- Be there as the official temperature observation is made.
- Learn about Weather and Climate Extremes (WMO Extremes Archive)
- Learn about how another claim to the world’s hottest temperature title was invalidated after 90 years.
- Learn about protecting yourself from extreme heat from people who live there.
Guest Speakers:
- Christopher Burt – Weather Underground
- Dr. Randall Cerveny – Ariz. State University/World Meteorological Organization
- Chris Stachelski – NOAA’s National Weather Service – Las Vegas, NV
- TBD – Death Valley National Park
About the record:
Death Valley, California is known for being a land of extremes, including its climate. Temperatures here normally reach or exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit from mid-May until early October. On July 10, 1913 a temperature of 134 degrees Fahrenheit was recorded here which stands as the hottest air temperature ever recorded on a properly sighted and maintained thermometer anywhere in the world.
During July 1913, Death Valley endured an intense stretch of hot weather from the 5th through the 14th when the high temperature reached 125 degrees Fahrenheit or greater every day. This 10 day consecutive stretch ranks as the longest such period on record here. The hottest days were from the 9th through the 13th when the high reached at least 129 degrees Fahrenheit. The most sweltering day was on July 10th when the temperature spiked to 134 degrees Fahrenheit. Although Death Valley was known for being an extremely hot place, this reading helped to solidify this reputation.
On September 13, 1922 a temperature of 136 degrees Fahrenheit was recorded at El Azizia, Libya. This was eventually certified by the World Meteorological Organization as the hottest air temperature ever recorded on Earth. However, evidence about the 136 degree reading suggested that it was invalid. On September 12, 2012 the World Meteorological Organization officially re-certified the 134 degree reading at Death Valley as the all-time highest air temperature recorded on the planet.
Agenda:
| 11:00 – 12:00 | Press conference and media interviews |
| 12:00 – 12:20 | What Makes Death Valley the Hottest Place on Earth? – NWS |
| 12:20 – 12:45 | History of the Death Valley Weather Station – Chris Stachelski, NWS |
| 12:45 – 1:30 | What is it Like to Live in the Hottest Place on Earth? – NPS |
| 1:30 – 1:50 | Break |
| 1:50 – 2:35 | Overturning the Libya Record – Christopher Burt, Weather Underground |
| 2:35 – 3:20 | World’s hottest recorded temperature? Who’s to blame? – Dr. Randall Cerveny, WMO/ASU |
| 3:20 – 3:45 | What Made July 10, 1913 So Hot? – Chris Stachelski, NWS |
| 3:45 | Head outside for 4:00 temperature observation. |
Contact Information:
| Dan Berc | Cheryl Chipman |
| Warning Coordination Meteorologist | Public Information Officer |
| National Weather Service | Death Valley National Park |
| Las Vegas, NV | Furnace Creek, CA |
| daniel.berc@noaa.gov | cheryl_chipman@nps.gov |
| (702) 263-9744 x223 | (760) 786-3207 |
=================================================================
Word has it that CNN will be there. Hopefully Al Gore will attend also so that we can get the full power of the Gore effect demonstrated on international television.
Barring that, I have a friend who flies an air fire tanker who might be able to supply some instant comic relief.
================================================================
Tough luck Amarillo and Borger. They stopped promoting “Global Cooling” decades ago.
Attend a party in
Death Valley, California,
on July 10th?!!
You’d have to be insane!
Death Valley SHOULD be celebrating the tying a new all-time temperature record (129F), and/or celebrating the “overturning” of the “record” reports from July 1913. The temperature data from Death Valley/Greenland Ranch in July 1913 are — take your pick — dubious, flawed, untrustworthy, unreliable, not credible, bogus, etc. The high temperatures “observed” from July 9 to 13, 1913, included two 129s, a 130, a 131, and a 134F. Yet in all other years since 1911 (when the weather station at Greenland Ranch in Furnace Creek was established) the highest temperature is 129F. In 103 summers, annual maximum temperatures at Death Valley range from 119F to 129F — except for the 134F in 1913. How many standard deviations from the average annual maximum temperature is 134F?! A lot!
During the “hot” week in July 1913, daily maximum temperatures at the closest surrounding desert stations (Jean, NV; Independence, CA; Barstow, CA; and Tonopah, CA) were no more than ten degrees above average for July. Yet, the maximums temperature reports at Greenland Ranch are 14 to 19 degrees above the July average of about 115F. This simply does not happen in the Mojave Desert during summer hot spells!! High temperatures are easily predictable when a large upper high smothers the region in summer (assuming no cooling moisture/thunderstorm intrusions). Afternoon high temperatures are a function of elevation and the temperature of the air mass between about 600 and 800 millibars. If the atmosphere had been warm enough to support afternoon maximums from 129F to 134F in Death Valley from July 9 to 13, then the reports from Jean, Independence, Barstow, and Tonopah would support this. They do not.
Death Valley’s 100-year temperature record does not support the max temp reports from July 1913. Surrounding station data do not support the 130F-plus reports. The first 20 years of temperature and precipitation records from Greenland Ranch are riddled with inconsistent data. In the hot spell over the weekend, Lancaster, Needles, Daggett, Las Vegas, Bishop, Desert Rock and other stations either set or tied ALL-TIME high temperature records, or came within a degree or two. Yet Death Valley fell five degrees short of its 134F in 1913. This does not add up, meteorologically or climatologically! If the maximum temperatures of 130, 131 and 134F were indeed legitimate in Death Valley in July 1913, then there would have been additional 130F-plus readings there in the past 100 years, as there have been numerous HOTTER heat waves in the Death Valley and Mojave Desert region since then.
What is the explanation? Easy — the 1913 data are wrong! Climatologists have speculated as to the cause of the big heat in DV in July 1913 —- local heat build-up, bad instruments, etc. But I figure that the cause is human error —- human incompetence — human indifference — human manipulation. I suspect that the observer in July 1913 (Oscar Denton) intentionally “bumped up” the maximum temperature readings that week. We will never know for sure. What we DO KNOW is that the max temps from Death Valley/Greenland Ranch in July, 1913, are outrageously inflated, and if they were to be reported next week, there would be a Federal investigation!
Here are a few links to my blog on recent DV heat:
http://stormbruiser.com/chase/2013/06/30/june-30-2013-death-valley-hits-128f/
http://stormbruiser.com/chase/2013/07/02/july-2-2013-death-valley-hits-129f/
http://stormbruiser.com/chase/2012/08/19/july-11-12-2012-death-valley-record-heat/
William Reid
Excellent work, William Reid. The 134 is clearly bogus, but I doubt it will ever be overturned. The record has been endorsed by NOAA for decades and it would cause too much embarrassment for it to be retracted. I also think the “record” is going to be safe for many years given the current heat wave couldn’t come close to it.
Ford – the Model T – beginning October 1, 1908. See how sensitive the environment is to automobile CO2 emissions?
/sarc and dry, very dry humor
.
========================================================================
As a layman, the main reason I doubt what you’ve said about the 1913 temperature is that none of the CAGW promoters had put it forward. They would jump at it if there was anything to it.
But, even if you are right, the take away is that if we don’t know with certainty what the temperatures were in the past, (including the sites you site?) how do we know with certainty they are “extreme” now?
“””””…..AndyG55 says:
July 2, 2013 at 2:23 pm
@ur momisugly Stephen Rasey
Saved me the bother of explaining.. been my sleep time 🙂
As George says, at 75 degrees, its probably nearer 1000w downward TSI x cos 75 degrees = 260w/m2 incident to surface. so the mythical Trenberthian value of 342w/m2 probably occurs around 70 degrees off centre…….”””””
Andy, it’s always a good idea to draw sketches to “sanity check” your words. You would quickly have seen that the axis tilt has no real effect at the equinoxes, which is the only time the sun is directly above the equator.
And I always take the insolation number, as being what you read, on a radiometer pointed directly at the sun, because that’s what a satellite reads.
And of course the extra-terrestrial TSI is independent of latitude. and measures the same pole to pole at the equinoxes; 1362 W/m^2, which comes down to about 1,000 in CAVU at about air mass 1.5, which allows for some increased slant angle atmospheric absorption.
A solar energy collector, would optimally be aligned normal to the sun vector. Of course, that energy is spread over a larger oblique area, if you consider the surface to be flat and horizontal.
The 342 number is 1/4 of the real TSI, on the theory that a sphere has four times the area of a circle. But that is not any real number. No physical processes are going on with solar radiation impinging on any surface at 342 W/m^2. Four leaps of six feet each, will not allow you to clear a 24 foot gap. They are NOT equivalent to a single 24 ft leap.
And since it is generally held that surfaces radiate EM radiation, at least thermal radiation with something akin to the theoretical black body spectrum, with some reduced (and maybe spectral emissivity), the we expect a T^4 dependence for the total emission. A 4:1 increase in total emission implies a 1.414 increase in effective radiating Temperature.
I suspect that part of the reason, the models don’t match reality, is all this averaged “forcings” nonsense.
If water boils away at +100 deg. C, in an elapsed time (t), it WILL NOT all boil away in a time (4t) if you heat it to +70.7 deg C
“””””…..Stephen Rasey says:
July 2, 2013 at 12:57 pm
But at your 75 deg. latitude, the equinoxial sun elevation will be more than 15 degrees above the horizon. At that sun elevation, the atmospheric extinction, is nowhere near 75%, so the “reading” will be closer to 1,000 W/m^2 than to 342.
Doesn’t the angle of the square meter matter?…..”””””
Well it does if you are tring to collect solar energy on a PV panel, in thearctic.
But if you read carefully what I wrote, I said the “reading” is taken by pointing the radiometer at the sun, so the square metre is normal to the sun vector, at whatever latitude you are. You can get lower readings by pointing the radiometer to some nebulous spot in outer space; but why would you do that ?
“Well it does if you are trying to collect solar energy on a PV panel, in the arctic”
or the surface of the Earth. That “reading” will be spread over 4 times the surface area than it would if it were directly overhead. There is a per meter squared in the “reading” that the reading device does not know about.
I presume that ceremonies will be out doors gathered round the weather station itself. Fireless wienie roasts and scrambled eggs would be in order too. Though there will probably be plenty of hot air, hot air ballons might be a flop.
If the wind is blowing on the happy clelbration day, I wonder if the wind chill factor will be taken into account. Erp!
George, I think we are both actually saying the same thing, vaguely (its been a tough week)
I am talking about the energy per m^2 at the Earth’s surface, you appear to be talking about the metre reading pointing directly at the Sun. Different things.
Anyways, the 342w/m^2 as used in Trenberthian energy equations is a farce.
F Ross says “there will probably be plenty of hot air”
of both varieties 🙂
Meanwhile, in Kansas, we’re experiencing mild temperatures of around 80 degrees. Sounds like weather being weather.
What was the lowest temp in the desert that day? I wonder how much they were paid for this. Actually F temps are taken in the shade, not in full sun, or they used to be. Wouldn’t be much shade in death valley would there?
Surely Jim Hansen can “adjust” this temperature before July 13. He’s looking for the new and improved data as we speak.
July 4th coming up folks, Independence day.
Well all this ballyhoo about Death Valley (not) breaking the world’s all time high Temperature, actually made the featured “news” story, on this afternoon’s Communist Chinese Television News (CCTV CH 36-3). They showed that you could melt ice cubes on the ground there, and even fry an egg on the ground. I don’t think the ground actually was 129 deg F. Notably, they never actually showed a picture of the official weather/climate thermometer, with any Temperature, let alone a record one. All they would say was that the record reading was taken “just over there.” Say dummy, why don’t you just haul your a*** just over there, and take some video of the Thermometer reading the record Temperature. The cackling Chinese tourist, could only say (in between giggles) that it was either the luckiest day, or the unluckiest day of his life; being there for the “record” non- display.
I’m guessing that the Chicoms are just cackling at the USA and Obama’s new 5-year plan on curbing climate change through electricity rate skyrocketing. They did have some nice pictures of parts of death valley; and by the look of the tourist people, it wasn’t a bit hot there. Maybe that’s why they didn’t show the official thermometer “right over there.”
These people have turned this into a weird fetish thing. I wonder if they will build and alter and give sacrifice to the sun or something?
“””””…..bushbunny says:
July 2, 2013 at 8:11 pm
July 4th coming up folks, Independence day……”””””
Actually the Declaration of Independence was signed by 12 of the 13 colonies, on July 2nd; today; Declaration Day. Well wouldn’t you know it, the New York delegation had not received their instructions whether to sign or not. Now there is commitment for you; a tradition that Mayor Bloomberg upholds to this day You show up for the most important single thing that ever happened on planet earth; and you haven’t even made up your damn mind what you should do.
Well by the time July 4th came around; NY had finally got over their stage fright, so they signed on July 4.
What I want to know is whether Hansen and allies will run around before the celebration turning off air conditioners and unplugging fans?
And don’t forget the afternoon nature hike from one thermometer to another scheduled at 1PM.
Better yet, maybe we should all book rooms at the ranch and fill it up before the media circus tries to get reservations or indoors…
Besides; I thought the park service didn’t like non-residents to visit during the summer months? Something about not understanding or being prepared for Death Valley?
Lets get more carbon in, in a hurry, to break the record!?
Lets face it, there is no such thing as the coldest day! Well, in NOaa land!
“””””…..AndyG55 says:
July 2, 2013 at 5:06 pm
“Well it does if you are trying to collect solar energy on a PV panel, in the arctic”
or the surface of the Earth. That “reading” will be spread over 4 times the surface area than it would if it were directly overhead. There is a per meter squared in the “reading” that the reading device does not know about……”””””
Well no Andy, you still don’t have it correct.
The sun illuminates a bit more than half of the earth surface, 24 hours per day, 365 1.4 days per year. But that surface has a projected area of pi.R^2. which is the total area intercepting solar energy. at 1362 W/m^2.
The actual solid/liquid surface sees something in the 1,000 W/m^2 range; probably a bit less. And that is over the pi.R^2 area. So no need to apply any cosine factors, which in any case is not the cause of the factor of four.
That comes from the fact that the total surface area of a sphere is 4.pi.R^2, so the total insolation, averaged over the entire globe surface 24/365 is 340.5 W/m^2.
The problem in the polar regions, where the solar altitude is low, is that the surface is typically snow, it is not an optical surface, tilted 75 degrees from the sun vector; it is a fractal optically anechoic surface, and it presents faces at all angles to the sun vector, besides 75 degrees ( for 15 deg sun altitude. So those micro facets pinting directly at the sun in the snow matrix, DO receive the full attenuated TSI, maybe 1,000 W/m^2, not the prorated 342 number. So they melt, which they might not do at 342 W/m^2. So the snow morphology changes rapidly under the sun, and when the melted snow refreezes, it tends to become ice, which is optically transparent, so next day, the reformulated “snow” is far more absorptive.
The Trenberth assumption is that all 4.pi.R^2 square metres of globe surface, will radiate at the same uniform rate at all times, Well if the global Temp is 288 K, that is less than 390 W/m^2.
Death valley in daytime radiates at a much higher rate, if the surface is actually 80-90 deg C.
“You show up for the most important single thing that ever happened on planet earth; and you haven’t even made up your damn mind what you should do.” [George]
LOL.
There’s a reason it’s called Death valley and Furnace creek. It’s been hot in the past as well. Notably, Marble Bar in NW Oz, set a world record of most consecutive days of 100 °F (40 °C) or above, during a period of 160 days from 31 October 1923 to 7 April 1924.