On Sunday, August 16th the National Weather Service in Las Vegas, Nevada sent out a Tweet highlighting a new maximum daily temperature of 130°F in Death Valley:
Predictably, the media jumped on this number with the Los Angeles Times saying “…possibly the highest mercury reading on Earth since 1913“. Even the Drudge Report got into the act putting the 130°F temperature headline front and center.
(Added) and on the NWS Las Vegas Facebook page, they posted this:
While global warming activists are rubbing their hands together in anticipation and glee hoping this will aid their case, what they and the LA Times aren’t telling you is that this is simply “business as usual” for Death Valley. In fact, back in 1913, over 100 years of “global warming” ago, Death Valley’s official weather station at Greenland Ranch hit an all time record of 134°F, and also hit 130°F or higher three times that July:
And here is the table of records for Death Valley:
While climate crusaders would like you to think today’s 130°F temperature is more “proof” of global warming aka “climate change” induced by fossil fuel use putting more carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, the irrefutable fact is that in 1913, CO2 in our atmosphere was about 43% lower than today at 290 parts per million in 1913 compared to the “Climate crisis” level of 414 PPM today.
You have to wonder, if current CO2 levels are responsible for record heat waves today, as climate activists like to claim, how did it produce a still unbroken record temperature of 134°F back in July 1913?
The answer is; it didn’t then, and didn’t today.
The unbearably hot weather in Death Valley is a combination of a hot regional weather pattern and local factors found nowhere else on Earth, according to the National Park Service:
“The depth and shape of Death Valley influence its summer temperatures. The valley is a long, narrow basin 282 feet (86 m) below sea level, yet is walled by high, steep mountain ranges. The clear, dry air and sparse plant cover allow sunlight to heat the desert surface. Heat radiates back from the rocks and soil, then becomes trapped in the valley’s depths. Summer nights provide little relief as overnight lows may only dip into the 85°F to 95°F (30°C to 35°C) range. Heated air rises, yet is trapped by the high valley walls, is cooled and recycled back down to the valley floor. These pockets of descending air are only slightly cooler than the surrounding hot air. As they descend, they are compressed and heated even more by the low elevation air pressure. These moving masses of super heated air blow through the valley creating extreme high temperatures.”
So, don’t fret about climate change because Death Valley got hot again, it’s business as usual for the place, and not an indicator for global temperatures in any way.
The MSM is trying to discredit the 1913 observations. A few articles I’ve seen say the 134F record is disputed.
Yeah, the thermodynamic characteristics of mercury have changed a lot in 100 years. Oh, wait…
100+ years for global warming to catch up to heat of 1913
huffington post – just posted “likely the hottest in a Century”
Geez – they omitted “not the hottest in the last 110 years”
The media is fake news.
I can’t imagine any meaningful way for today’s scientists to assess the reliability of the 1913 report. If today’s scientists try “we have better thermometers that they had” then they will have to admit that the 1913 reports were as likely to be too low rather than too high.
But I’m not surprised that the media are doing their best to make this new temperature a record.
The media have an attention span of 12 hours or so – hence every day gives us a new record high temperature 🙂
As a worker in a media company in Australia I think you are being quite a bit too generous with that figure.
boffin77
August 17, 2020 at 10:28 am
“they will have to admit that the 1913 reports were as likely to be too low rather than too high.”
Very good point boffin.
It’s in their interests to promote a new record. It allows them to push the climate change fraud yet again and that pushes their sales up. Journalists get prizes for pushing climate change, not for debunking it as a fraud.
There are some good reasons for disputing the 134F reading. Check out this article: https://www.wunderground.com/blog/weatherhistorian/an-investigation-of-death-valleys-134f-world-temperature-record.html
no tree ring proxies there in 2013? You can always trust those tree thermometers- accurate to multiple decimal places.
/sarcasm
the observer was a dolt, faked a bunch of readings
Can you tell us why it is named Furnace Creek, and not Dolt Station?
If they named them after the type of people that operate them they would all be called Dolt Station.
This is either not really Mosher, or is making a gratuitous assertion without evidence, that can be just as gratuitously disregarded.
“The observer was a dolt”
jeez Mosh, are you drinking again?
That Kool Ade habit is hard to kick Anthony, show some compassion. And please don’t suggest Mosh is a dolt, that would be just plain cruel.
So, in 1913, this observer anticipated the future issues temperature would bring and with his knowledge of the future somehow decided to fake some readings?
And you are going to stick with that?
I’m new here, but have already lost all respect for you
What a pathetic attempt at drive by smear.
If someone were going to fake some readings, the last thing you would want to do is fake record setting readings. That would draw too much attention to you.
You want FAKE.. go to the BEST !!
Do you have any evidence, or do you just hate anything that goes against your paycheck?
Steven finally putting his arts degree to good use as a fiction writer.
Mosh is looking at himself in a mirror.
The observer most definitely is a DOLT !
The motivation would be for him to do the opposite. The current Furnace Creek was until 1933 named “Greenland Ranch”. The owner wanted to make it a resort! So the motivation to falsify would have been to show lower temps NOT higher. And BTW that same guy owned the near by Borax mines and certainly it would not be in his interest to claim it was hotter than it was.
If the 1913 figure is respected, as are all the lower temperatures from that time and not just for Death Valley because they set the reference point for the beginning of ‘global warming’, then the media and the alarmist self promoters are done out of a !!!! HEADLINE. Without citing any objective evidence they just throw about the assertion that the 1913 figure ‘is in doubt’. This sort of crap is about the level of reality denial this self intoxicated mob is stuck at. But hey, there will be some self promoting LPU’s coming out of this published in Nature etc and that is what it is really all about. These days ‘climate science’ in particular is a KPI driven game of quantity first and to hell with quality.
An easy and simple technique to copy.
“I think that the 2020 130°F Death Valley temperature might be wrong.”
There you are. The 130° record is now disputed as well…..
Of course they are! All they have to do is merely plant the seed of doubt and the masses of useful idiots do the rest of work to spread it. Logical and empirical analysis of said doubt is irrelevant.
Yes, that’s their angle on it. However, if they want to claim that historic temps. are unreliable, then they have nothing to make comparisons with, to say today’s temps are higher. ”Unreliable” works both ways, but they assume it just means it fits their narrative.
If it didn’t have a long, long history or being intolerably hot there, it probably would have been named something else.
Hoyt, the name Death Valley and Furnace Creek caused two other geologists and myself to cross from east to west in JUly, 1990. We were in a company dark blue blazer with a black vinyl roof. Part way across, midday, the motor overheats. We turn off air conditioner and continue. Motor gets dangerously hot. We turn on heater to max output, motor still hot, around 150 degrees inside. Fortunately, being geologists, we had a cooler full of survival fluids. We drank some of said fluids and poured some over our heads. Made it to other side, Furnace Creek. Replenished survival fluids and waited for evening, then continued. The Blazer stank of survival fluids for about a year. Moral of story: make sure you have adequate survival fluids when you cross Death Valley.
BBC says the 1913 temperatures are disputed. They would.
The Baghdad Bob Corporation
Breaking news…
….global warming causes record heat waves to be cooler
film at 11
In other news, Water Wet.
Icy cold front headed for the Western Cape this week, flooding expected
South America and Australia will follow.
Southern Hemisphere’s Incoming Big Freeze — S. America, S. Africa, and Australia are all Bracing for a Brutal Bout of Polar Cold
Hot here, cold there….
Northern Hemisphere Summer… Southern Hemisphere Winter.
How strange
You read, temperatures tend to fall far below average.
Temperatures have been well above the 1981-2010 average so far this SH winter, according to UAH LT satellite data. +0.4C in both Jun & Jul over land & ocean; up to +0.6C in Jun and +0.8C in Jul over land areas only: https://www.nsstc.uah.edu/data/msu/v6.0/tlt/uahncdc_lt_6.0.txt
You know the difference bewtween past and future ?
You live in the past, I talk about the future.
PS
I think, the 2m temps are much more interesting, aren’t they ?
“The past” meaning the previous 2 months?
Antarctic warming causes the air to rise toward the top end of the planet, so antarctic cold is being felt in A, SA and SA:)
Nevertheless, Antarctic iceshield is growing hitting 1981-2010 average.
I was just being silly.
Anthony,
Drudge has for long gone over to the dark side. Normals have moved to Citizen Free Press and Whatfinger. 130 again, ho hum.
Bongino Report
Yes, Drudge has lost the plot. On the dark side, everyone’s a hysteric. If they notice him at all, they’ll remember how he wouldn’t let them bury Monica.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Rantinly is the one I prefer.
There were rumors 18 months ago (January-February 2019) that Matt Drudge sold-out a controlling interest in a secret deal, with Non-Disclosure Agreements, to Bloomberg media. The secret, private deal gave Matt at least many 10’s of millions to a low 100’s millions to turn over content control to Mike Bloomberg. To keep the appearance of nothing happened/changed Matt retained some level of editorial and layout control. The tone of what was posted on the Drudge Report though began to dramatically shift after Spring 2019.
Along with the two websites you mentioned, I also use The Liberty Daily and Signs of the Times. They are all good alternatives to what Drudge used to be.
Not good enough. That new reflected-heat-into site should be producing new all-time record highs by now. But just wait — it’ll get there.
Naw. The “new reflected-heat-into site” is presumably the Badwater instrument installed by the Ames Research Center in the 1990s. It’s 30km down the road and about 13 meters lower in elevation than the NPS headquarters site at Greenland Ranch/Furnace Creek where the 130F reading was recorded yesterday and the 134F reading was made in 1913. On average, it may well be a bit hotter than Furnace Creek, but I’ve never validated that assumption. I looked around last night to see if temperature data from Badwater was available for yesterday. If it is, I couldn’t find it.
Anthony
I remember years ago they moved the weather station to a location you thought at the time would be warmer (or that is my recollection). I searched your archives and couldnt find it. Could you post a link?
I think it was john Daly who had an article on that. The site was moved to manufacture a new record. From what he said it is surprising it has taken so long to get close to the old record.
Wow time flies. That article was 2002.
It should add to the controversy.
Thanks
But its a dry heat. Meanwhile we just passed another tipping point.. I guess if we keep tipping over it comes back to normal again… https://www.yahoo.com/news/greenlands-melting-ice-sheet-passed-002749194.html
Is this the station that was moved several years ago to the base of a black cliff?
Was this recorded at the original or new station, facing a southern exposure rocky cliff?
It’s a West Facing cliff of — as I recall — shiny, white Zabriskie Quartzite. To the West, beyond the paved parking area and asphalt road are extensive salt flats. It surely gets a bit toasty there on Summer afternoons. It may not be the hottest place on the planet, but it’d sure be on any reasonable list of candidates for that dubious honor.
For more information, Google “Badwater weather station”
It’s a west/northwest facing cliff. The station is about 100 feet from the cliff and about 55 feet from the roadway. It’s not as bad a siting the station in a parking but it seems less than ideal.
They have been disputed. NOAA reviewed them and let them stand. BTW the 1913 records were set before there were asphalt parking lots, vehicle and AC exhaust, and a solar array close to the station as they have now.
So if any temperature should be disputed it should be the latest since it cannot be honestly compared to the 1913 records recorded when the site was far more pristine.
I look at such things as “It’s the temperature.”
Such readings are not very useful for climate (sic) studies. Atmospheric temperature is not climate.
But my point is, had I been at that location, at that time, and called home, I would have said “Wow! It’s 130 degrees.”
{Truth be told, I’ve only experienced 117° and -33°F.}
I’ve worked in -55c, in 1994, NE BC in drilling rigs
On the bright side, I think your body cannot discern the difference below -35, it’s just MF cold
Broke my heavy rig boot kicking a pipe
They just could have Googled it:
https://ggweather.com/climate/extremes_us.htm
– JPP
almost all of the high temperature records were before global warming
That’s why the alarmists always focus on an artificially constructed “average global temperature.” That way they don’t have to admit that the normal actual measured temperature range of Earth is not being exceeded anywhere at all.
Average temperatures in general, to include minimum temps and gloss over the lack of increase in maximum temps.
For some reason all this CO2 forgets how to amplify temperatures in the daytime then remembers how again every night…
The cynical interpretation is that it’s just urban heat islands manifesting themselves, but you don’t want to rule out forgetful CO2 too quickly.
Yeah not one state has its highest recorded temperature in the 2000+, so much for global warming.
my bad 1 had its highest temperature in the last 20 years.
Do you have a link to that? I want to hit people over the head with it.
OK sorry, I got JPP’s link above. South Carolina it was.
Maybe the observer was a dolt and drank too much?
So much BS! Temperatures as high has 135 F. are common in the central part of the Saudi Arabian Desert! Go only one hour South of Riyadh in the Rub’ Al-Khali for temperatures that make “Death Valley” look air conditioned!
Great post Anthony !
( p.s. Why am I still in the “dog house” after 2 years ? )
Hmmm. An area with an almost total absence of greenhouse gases.
That’s where you get extremes.
If it doesn’t suit ‘the narrative’ it’s weather or, in this case, it’s disputed.
If it suits ‘the narrative’ it’s global warming and it’s as solid as the Rock of Gibraltar.
Somebody should do a study of who is more honest, the left or the right. I have a sneaking suspicion I already know the answer.
Was that intended?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnels_of_Gibraltar
“Gibraltar has around 34 miles (55 km) of tunnels, nearly twice the length of its entire road network.”
Apparently, according to the Beebiots and others, the mere fact that something “has been disputed” is enough to cast doubt on it. By that logic, the earth may, or may not be round, and we may, or may not have had astronauts land on the moon.
yeah, 130F is definitely hype. absolutely no problem, assuming air conditioning.
Heck, it was only 126 in Palm Springs (I have never seen so many golf courses in my life!)
Bagdad was 125F (a record for Bagdad) 4 days ago. problem there is they only electricity for about 4 hours per day.
Not sure if following was a record, but it was super hot to me:
Back in 1983 I was in Arizona for 14 days. In about five of those days we reached 128°F. People were sitting in lakes and ponds, drinking beer and lemonade.
A week later, the heat wave had moved up to the mid states. Although it was way less warm in the mid states, it caused many to die, whereas very few were affected in Arizona.
During the heat wave in Arizona, a former Vietnam soldier explained to me that it is important to keep your salt balance in good order. He explained: “If you lick some salt from your finger, and it tastes slightly of sugar, you are in need of more salt.”
At this 1983 event, the media forgot to prosecute CO2, SUVs and fossil fuels, for causing this heat wave.
Yes. The salt balance is important and I am surprised it does not get the media attention it deserves. I recall that a 4 hour watch in the engine room of one of Her Majesty’s Cruisers (HMS Ceylon) in the Red Sea required the consumption of the Lime water provided measured in gallons, PLUS a handful of the salt tablets. If you ignored the salt tablets you were in trouble, health wise.
Those with diabetes advised to be be careful with their salt intake should be made aware of this.
Having cycled all day in tropical Australian summer once, we ordered lemonade and asked for salt to add to it when we reached a pub (bar) at the end of the day. The patrons thought we were mad.
I learned that one in a summer in India. Very useful to know. Electrolytes are best, but salt is better than nothing.
Carl, working beside a coal-boiler in summer, the temp could easily reach 120F+. Salt tablets and LOTS of cold water, drinking and soaked in a rag around the neck, made it tolerable for several hrs managing the jobs (the welders had it even tougher, but could still manage).
30 years or its a data point with 29 years of missing links.
Robin Williams (as Adrian Kronauer) said it all in “Good Morning Vietnam” –
“It’s hot, damn hot, so hot you could do some crotchpot cookin'”
“It’s hot, fool, were you born on the sun?”
Where I come from it’s so damn hot that the birds fly backwards to keep their ar$es cool.
Time to dust off this 2012 article from WUWT on the siting of the new Badwater station in Death Valley: a set-up for future records. I suggested in the below comment at the time that we should bookmark the article for this very eventuality today and Anthony replied “Good idea”. Link leads to my comment with the article above it:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/09/13/dr-jeff-masters-shows-why-siting-matters-death-valley-steals-all-time-temperature-record-from-libya/#comment-896896
The table of temperatures in Death valley over the years is really rather boring. What happened to global warming?
134 is a bogus record
https://www.wunderground.com/blog/weatherhistorian/an-investigation-of-death-valleys-134f-world-temperature-record.html
Only it isn’t “the hottest in 100 years”. That is El Azizia, Libya in 1922: 58C or 136F. Oh.
And 1934 was the warmest year. Oh.
And the 1930s were the warmest decade. Oh.
I see that the WMO “cancelled” El Azizia’s record in 2012, claiming it to be “illegitimate.”
Why am I not surprised?
If the 1930s was the warmest decade, why are none of the record hottest days in Death Valley from the 1930s?
With the climate temperature wavetrain being fractal, it is inevitable that records are regularly broken even in the absence of any long term trend up or down.
“While global warming activists are rubbing their hands together in anticipation and glee…”
That only happens in children’s cartoons you fool. Only in a puerile, deeply deluded mind could that idea possible spawn and be presented as a possibility. Good luck.
Is that really the only thing you could find to whine about. A bloody visual metaphor?
Your paymaster must be hanging his head in shame these days.
“Only in a puerile, deeply deluded mind”
And there’s Loy-doh !!
Never realised he was so introspective.
Loydo, were you born w/o a sense of humor, or did you have it surgically removed?
Why are we concerned that the National Weather Service Las Vegas is proclaiming a new temperature record in Death Valley. All weather bureaus do this. In Australia it’s par for the course with our Bureau of Meteorology. I expect it give taxpayer funded public servants something to do to overcome boredom.
Death Valley is hot? Wow, that’s amazing. I wonder why they called it Death Valley?
Incidentally Baghdad regularly reaches 50 C in summer, which is 122 F. Yet 7 million people live there despite poverty, bad electricity supply and limited aircon. It always amuses me that CAGW activists wet themselves over a temperature rise of 1.5 C when humans do perfectly well in places like Baghdad.
This is what is the problem with the young Earth dogma implicit in Climate Alarmism.
The highest temperature ever measured is conflated with the highest temperture ever.
The temperature record, at best, goes back to 1850. We have no idea what the temperatures were in Death Valley during the Medieval Warm Period or the Roman Warm Period. We have no hockey sticks made out of Joshua trees.
So two different readings, at two different times on two different thermometers? How much urbanisation around the thermometer site in 110 years?
The station’s placement is invalid.
Literally the temperature in Death Valley isn’t admissible because the station is not only right beside asphalt but it is also over gravel and stone near signs that effect air flow and has a circulation vector that includes more than one air conditioner… let alone the fact that it’s BELOW SEA LEVEL and the reading isn’t adjusted for altitude.
Adjusted for altitude the reading was only about 126°F without adjusting for station placement violations.
The problem here is that the mechanisms we use for detecting ambient temperature aren’t “laboratory” quality, so the increased density of air at -230ft changes the specific heat of a volume of air.
Inconvenient facts:
The heat waves of the 1930’s blew away anything at any other time of US recorded history:
https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-high-and-low-temperatures
1934 was an especially brutal/fatal year:
Cincinnati Has Never Topped Records Set in the Heat Wave of 1934
The summer of 1934 was a hot one all around the United States, but the focus of the heat was the Ohio Valley around Cincinnati.
https://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/article/cincinnati-has-never-topped-records-set-in-the-heat-wave-of-1934/
Drought Monitor 1934:
?resize=550%2C500
1936 North American heat wave
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936_North_American_heat_wave
Summer Scorchers: America’s 9 Worst Heat Waves Ever Recorded:
https://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/summer-scorchers-americas-9-worst-heat-waves-ever-recorded/
In the last 20 years, how many US states have set all time hottest temps?
Just 3, Colorado-2019 , South Carolina-2012 and South Dakota-2006.
Half of the states set their all time hottest temperature during the hottest decade for Summer heat…….the 1930’s.
Despite the modest, mostly beneficial global warming recently we have not topped those historic highs in 47 out of the 50 states.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._state_and_territory_temperature_extremes
If you start to record something, it is inevitable that because you do not have the whole population of the variable, that new record values will be found. Unless an extended trend have been found then it is not really possible to say that the population has moved to a new average value and even then there is a good chance that this is just a short term anomaly. This was exemplified by the recent study of hurricane intensities that showed mean hurricane intensities had remained stable for 167 years but that there had been short term variations about that mean.
Everyone forgets this and also forgets that a record temperature is a record even if it is only a small fraction of a degree different from the previous value. One swallow does not make a summer!!
TYPICAL SLOPPY REPORTING by MSM picked up and amplified by the usual suspects. The original story was that it was the hottest day for the month of AUGUST in Death Valley. The hottest days on record are in JULY.
Here is the REAL story: the last blackout due to heat in CA was in the Bay area in 2001. Temps in San Francisco hit 103 F. THIS time, the highest temp in SF was this past Friday, when it reached 95 F. CA has done such a poor job of meeting the growth in demand for power, that after almost two decades, they are now having blackouts when temps are eight degrees lower. If their policies continue, blackouts will be the norm for typical summer days.
Even Gov. Newsom is throwing in the towel saying, “that the state had to “sober up” about the fact that renewable energy sources had failed to provide enough power for the state at peak demand, and needed “backup” and “insurance” from other sources.”
Reality is biting them in the backsides, which many of us expected was going to happen.
We can of course argue about the temperature and whether it is a record. The other issue is whether this temperature has an interpretation in terms of AGW climate change.
Pls see
https://tambonthongchai.com/2020/07/16/the-internal-variability-issue/
Where we find that ….
“Internal variability of climate limits the ability of climate science to attribute localized extreme weather events to anthropogenic global warming. Localized means geographically limited and Event means time span limited”
Temperature records are also a result of high pressure systems. There’s always heat from the sun during the summer; it’s the movement and the creation of high and low pressure zones which cause “heat waves” versus “normal temps”. Does CO2 cause an increase in air pressure too?
“And here is the table of records for Death Valley”
So of the 30 hottest days in the last 110 years, over half were recorded in the last 20 years, and a third in the last 10.
Only 6 were recorded before 1960, all of them in the same 6 day period in 1913.
THANKS Anthony
Time to reprise / republish your write-up on the badly sited weather station in DV. As i remember the site was surrounded by asphalt and other heat emitters.
“And here is the table of records for Death Valley”
So of the 30 hottest days in the last 110 years, over half were recorded in the last 20 years, and a third in the last 10.
Only 6 were recorded before to 1960, all of them in the same 6 day period in 1913.
Why was it so hot on those days in 1913?
The Stevenson that recorded the 1913 record of 134F was an approved site but skeptics are questioning its validity largely because similar extreme temperatures weren’t recorded on the day at surrounding sites.
Nowadays the site can be 15C to 20C hotter than nearby stations but the scant recordings from 1913 suggest its 134C was about 30C hotter than the others. However, I believe Death Valley is a fairly unique local environment and reports on the 1913 day in question were that there was a fierce wind blowing down the valley. There was a death and first-hand accounts that it really was as hot as the instruments suggested.
The similarly extreme surrounding days in July 2013, including 130F and 131F, suggest possibly a blocked high pressure ridge above western Nevada over several days or a combination of other persistent weather elements. The alternative skeptic view would be an error with the thermometers that lasted for a week or so before it was fixed. Evidence required.
An archived article worth checking is ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/docs.lib/htdocs/rescue/mwr/061/mwr-061-02-0033.pdf in the Monthly Weather Review of February 1933 by Ernest Eklund from the San Fransisco Weather Bureau.
Extract …
“High temperatures are by no means rare in Death Valley, judging from the records of Greenland Ranch, and it seems probable that even higher temperatures occur on the floor of the Valley, 98 feet lower than Green- land Ranch, considering the probable cooling effect of irrigated land and green vegetation at Greenland Ranch and the greater effect of insolation at the lower elevation. Extreme maximum temperatures of 120′ F. or higher have occurred at Greenland Ranch in every month from May to September, inclusive, and such temperatures have occurred there each year since the record began. In July 1929 the mean maximum temperature was 119.5′ F.”
And at ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/docs.lib/htdocs/rescue/mwr/050/mwr-050-01-0010.pdf cited in Anthony’s post (including a 1922 pic of the site and screen) …
“Nearly every summer during the past few years the highest natural air temperatures recorded in the United States by means of tested thermometers under approved methods of exposure have been those for Greenland Ranch.
…
The extreme maximum temperature of 134 degrees recorded on July 10, 1913, is the highest natural-air temperature ever recorded on the earth’s surface by means of a tested standard thermometer exposed in a standard ventilated instrument shelter. By way of explanation it should be stated that the instrument shelter used at this station is the same as those used at several thousand other weather stations maintained by the Weather Bureau throughout the United States. It has louvered sides, a double roof, tight floor, is painted white, faces north, and its floor is about 4 feet from the round. It is about 50 feet distant from the nearest high object. There is a free circulation of the air through the louvered sides, the double roof cuts off the heating effect of the sunshine, and the tight floor shuts out reflected and radiated heat from the ground.”
It’s also worth clicking the PDF link at https://journals.ametsoc.org/bams/article/84/12/1725/58161
As per https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/earths-hottest-temperature …
“On September 12, 2012, the World Meteorological Organization officially certified the 134°F reading at Death Valley as the all-time highest surface air temperature recorded on the planet.”
If the WMO officially certified it just eight years ago, it’ll seem a bit odd if the 134F in 1913 is ruled invalid by the review of the validity of the 130F a few days ago as the hottest ever recorded maximum on the planet.
BTW, Death Valley also has the world record longest heatwave of 154 days above 100F in 2001, a record previously held by Marble Bar in Western Australia with 160 days in 1923/24. The Marble Bar world record was technically erased a bit over a year ago when the BoM aka ACORN adjusted/cooled the historic daily temperatures so there’s now only 124 consecutive days above 100F in 1923/24 (see http://www.waclimate.net/very-hot-days-marble-bar.html).
So Death Valley can now lay claim to the hottest ever day and the longest ever heatwave recorded on earth.
The Stevenson that recorded the 1913 record of 134F was an approved site but skeptics are questioning its validity largely because similar extreme temperatures weren’t recorded on the day at surrounding sites.
Nowadays the site can be 15C to 20C hotter than nearby stations but the scant recordings from 1913 suggest its 134C was about 30C hotter than the others. However, I believe Death Valley is a fairly unique local environment and reports on the 1913 day in question were that there was a fierce wind blowing down the valley. There was a death and first-hand accounts that it really was as hot as the instruments suggested.
The similarly extreme surrounding days in July 2013, including 130F and 131F, suggest possibly a blocked high pressure ridge above western Nevada over several days or a combination of other persistent weather elements. The alternative skeptic view would be an error with the thermometers that lasted for a week or so before it was fixed. Evidence required.
An archived article worth checking is ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/docs.lib/htdocs/rescue/mwr/061/mwr-061-02-0033.pdf in the Monthly Weather Review of February 1933 by Ernest Eklund from the San Fransisco Weather Bureau.
Extract …
“High temperatures are by no means rare in Death Valley, judging from the records of Greenland Ranch, and it seems probable that even higher temperatures occur on the floor of the Valley, 98 feet lower than Green- land Ranch, considering the probable cooling effect of irrigated land and green vegetation at Greenland Ranch and the greater effect of insolation at the lower elevation. Extreme maximum temperatures of 120′ F. or higher have occurred at Greenland Ranch in every month from May to September, inclusive, and such temperatures have occurred there each year since the record began. In July 1929 the mean maximum temperature was 119.5′ F.”
And at ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/docs.lib/htdocs/rescue/mwr/050/mwr-050-01-0010.pdf cited in Anthony’s post (including a 1922 pic of the site and screen) …
“Nearly every summer during the past few years the highest natural air temperatures recorded in the United States by means of tested thermometers under approved methods of exposure have been those for Greenland Ranch.
…
The extreme maximum temperature of 134 degrees recorded on July 10, 1913, is the highest natural-air temperature ever recorded on the earth’s surface by means of a tested standard thermometer exposed in a standard ventilated instrument shelter. By way of explanation it should be stated that the instrument shelter used at this station is the same as those used at several thousand other weather stations maintained by the Weather Bureau throughout the United States. It has louvered sides, a double roof, tight floor, is painted white, faces north, and its floor is about 4 feet from the round. It is about 50 feet distant from the nearest high object. There is a free circulation of the air through the louvered sides, the double roof cuts off the heating effect of the sunshine, and the tight floor shuts out reflected and radiated heat from the ground.”
It’s also worth clicking the PDF link at https://journals.ametsoc.org/bams/article/84/12/1725/58161
As per https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/earths-hottest-temperature …
“On September 12, 2012, the World Meteorological Organization officially certified the 134°F reading at Death Valley as the all-time highest surface air temperature recorded on the planet.”
If the WMO officially certified it just eight years ago, it’ll seem a bit odd if the 134F in 1913 is ruled invalid by the review of the validity of the 130F a few days ago as the hottest ever recorded maximum on the planet.
BTW, Death Valley also has the world record longest heatwave of 154 days above 100F in 2001, a record previously held by Marble Bar in Western Australia with 160 days in 1923/24. The Marble Bar world record was technically erased a bit over a year ago when the BoM aka ACORN adjusted/cooled the historic daily temperatures so there’s now only 124 consecutive days above 100F in 1923/24 (see http://www.waclimate.net/very-hot-days-marble-bar.html).
So Death Valley can now lay claim to the hottest ever day and the longest ever heatwave recorded on earth.
“……possibly the highest mercury reading on Earth since 1913”
If atmospheric CO2 causes global warming then there must have been a hell of a lot of CO2 in the atmosphere in the year 1913!
No?
Is it just possible CO2 does not have much to do with global air temperature at all?
“And here is the table of records for Death Valley”
So of the 30 hottest days in the last 110 years, over half were recorded in the last 20 years, and a third in the last 10.
Only 6 were recorded before 1960, all in the same 6 day period in 1913.
The heat waves of the 1930’s blow away any US heat waves that we’ve had recently.
https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-high-and-low-temperatures
Sometimes seeing graphs/data doesn’t help you to envision the reality.
How about this article from the state of Ohio about 1934:
Cincinnati Has Never Topped Records Set in the Heat Wave of 1934
The summer of 1934 was a hot one all around the United States, but the focus of the heat was the Ohio Valley around Cincinnati.
https://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/article/cincinnati-has-never-topped-records-set-in-the-heat-wave-of-1934/
Imagine a drought monitor map in 2020, like this one from 1934 and the explanations that we would be reading about for what supposedly caused it:
?resize=550%2C500
Latest soil moisture:
https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/Soilmst_Monitoring/US/Soilmst/Soilmst.shtml#
1936 North American heat wave
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936_North_American_heat_wave
Summer Scorchers: America’s 9 Worst Heat Waves Ever Recorded
https://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/summer-scorchers-americas-9-worst-heat-waves-ever-recorded/
In the last 20 years, how many US states have set all time hottest temps?
Just 3, Colorado-2019 , South Carolina-2012 and South Dakota-2006.
Half of the states set their all time hottest temperature during the hottest decade for Summer heat…….the 1930’s.
Despite the modest, mostly beneficial global warming recently we have not topped those historic highs in 47 out of the 50 states.
U.S. state and territory temperature extremes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._state_and_territory_temperature_extremes
The heat waves of the 1930’s blow away any US heat waves that we’ve had recently.
https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-high-and-low-temperatures
Sometimes seeing graphs/data doesn’t help you to envision the reality.
How about this article from the state of Ohio about 1934:
Cincinnati Has Never Topped Records Set in the Heat Wave of 1934
The summer of 1934 was a hot one all around the United States, but the focus of the heat was the Ohio Valley around Cincinnati.
https://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/article/cincinnati-has-never-topped-records-set-in-the-heat-wave-of-1934/
Imagine a drought monitor map in 2020 like this one from 1934 and the explanations that we would be reading about for what supposedly caused it:
?resize=550%2C500
Latest soil moisture:
https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/Soilmst_Monitoring/US/Soilmst/Soilmst.shtml#
1936 North American heat wave
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936_North_American_heat_wave
Summer Scorchers: America’s 9 Worst Heat Waves Ever Recorded
https://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/summer-scorchers-americas-9-worst-heat-waves-ever-recorded/
In the last 20 years, how many US states have set all time hottest temps?
Just 3, Colorado-2019 , South Carolina-2012 and South Dakota-2006.
Half of the states set their all time hottest temperature during the hottest decade for Summer heat…….the 1930’s.
Despite the modest, mostly beneficial global warming recently we have not topped those historic highs in 47 out of the 50 states.
U.S. state and territory temperature extremes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._state_and_territory_temperature_extremes
Having stayed in Furnace Creek I wanted to know where the thermometer was located. Google maps revealed that the Visitor Centre is “temporarily closed”. Why? Refurbishment? Moving the recording instruments? Rather than cast doubt on the 1913 records, should not the recent reading be carefully analysed? Perhaps Mr. Moshe knew something and was referring to 2020 when he wrote “the observer was a dolt, faked a bunch of readings”
“And here is the table of records …”
So of the 30 hottest days in the last 110 years, over half were recorded in the last 20 years, and a third in the last 10.
Only 6 were recorded before 1960, all in the same 6 day period in 1913.
So the hottest temperature in Death Valley during the 20th Century occurred in 1913; 134 degrees F.
And the hottest day in Death Valley so far in the 21st Century occurred in 2020: 130 degrees F.
Junior high and high school students, please DO THE MATH.
The early 20th Century’s high temperature was 4 degrees hotter than any so far in the 21st Century. This is not evidence of man-made Global Warming. It is evidence that this year’s heat is nothing special.