World-record hot temperature may have been incorrectly measured.
In 1913, a temperature of 134°F (56.7°C) was reported at Greenland Ranch in Death Valley, California — still listed as the hottest air temperature ever recorded on Earth. But this new study by our friends Dr. John Christy and Dr. Roy Spencer argues that the famous record is wrong, and not just by a little. Using more than a century of weather data and historical records, the authors conclude that the 1913 reading was around 14°F too high and should never have been recognized as a world record.
Why the Record Is in Question
Death Valley is certainly one of the hottest places on Earth, but even in today’s warmer climate, it has never again reached 134°F. The highest recent temperatures there — in 2020 and 2021 — peaked at 130°F. This alone raises doubts: if the world has warmed since 1913, why hasn’t the record been broken?
Earlier researchers had also questioned the 134°F value. Meteorologist George Willson noted in 1915 that nothing unusual in the regional weather could explain such extreme heat. Later studies in the 1940s and 1950s found that a temperature that high should occur only once every several centuries, if at all.
To evaluate whether the 1913 reading made sense, the researchers used data from nearby weather stations outside Death Valley that have continuous records from 1923 to 2024. These stations are at higher elevations — typically 3,000 to 3,700 feet above sea level — while Greenland Ranch lies 178 feet below sea level.
Temperature normally drops with altitude. This rate of decrease is called the lapse rate. The team calculated lapse rates from 102 years of July temperature data to determine what the Death Valley temperature should have been based on surrounding stations. They found that in July, the air temperature typically falls by about 4.8°F per 1,000 feet of elevation.
Applying this relationship to the 1913 data, they reconstructed what Death Valley’s true temperature probably was. The result: the 134°F reading should have been closer to 120°F, plus or minus 2°F.
The study didn’t just find one bad measurement. The entire first half of July 1913 looks suspicious. For 17 days, the Greenland Ranch station reported temperatures an average of 8°F higher than what nearby stations would predict. On July 13, a second implausible high of 131°F was recorded.
Other years between 1911 and 1922 also showed odd patterns — especially 1914, 1916, 1917, and 1922. In some years, the daily highs often ended in multiples of five (like 105, 110, 115), suggesting they were being estimated or rounded rather than read directly from a thermometer.
The authors also found that day-to-day variations in those early years were unusually large compared to later decades, a sign of inconsistent or fabricated data.
What Might Have Happened
The paper presents historical clues to explain why the 1913 temperatures were exaggerated. Greenland Ranch, established in the late 1800s to support borax mining, was an isolated oasis amid the desert. By 1911, the U.S. Weather Bureau had installed a proper instrument shelter at the ranch, located over an irrigated alfalfa field. This setup provided reliable readings — but cooler than what ranch workers expected.
Locals were convinced Death Valley should reach over 130°F. They had earlier seen higher numbers on non-standard thermometers hung under the veranda of the ranch house. Those “porch thermometers,” exposed to reflected heat and possibly hot air trapped under the double roof, could easily show inflated temperatures.
Letters from that time show the ranch managers were disappointed that the official Weather Bureau thermometer was reporting “cool” values. The researchers suspect that Oscar Denton, the ranch foreman and official observer from 1912 to 1920, may have replaced some of the official readings with hotter values taken from the veranda thermometer.
The paper gives a vivid picture of how difficult it was to live and work in Death Valley a century ago. Observers were left alone in unbearable summer heat, often without oversight from the Weather Bureau. Denton himself was a recluse who distrusted outsiders and endured dangerous conditions while taking daily measurements. The authors note that no federal official visited the site from its installation in 1911 until 1924 — a 13-year gap when any number of observing mistakes or instrument moves could have occurred unnoticed.
Old photographs show the temperature shelter was moved at least once, possibly to a hotter location away from the irrigated field. These unsupervised changes, combined with the strong local belief that Death Valley was the world’s hottest place, likely encouraged Denton to record unrealistically high numbers.
Comparison with Other Early Records
Earlier reliable measurements in Death Valley — for example, by the Wheeler Survey in 1875 and a U.S. Weather Bureau expedition in 1891 — never exceeded 122°F. These readings were made with properly shielded thermometers similar to those used later at Greenland Ranch. This supports the conclusion that the 134°F value was artificially inflated, not a true reflection of the region’s natural climate.
Conclusion and Recommendations
After analyzing both the data and historical evidence, the authors conclude:
- The true temperature on July 10, 1913 was probably about 120°F, not 134°F.
- The reported value was likely taken from a poorly sited, unstandardized thermometer on the ranch veranda.
- Several years of early Greenland Ranch data show similar inconsistencies and should be re-examined.
- The World Meteorological Organization should rescind the 134°F record and review early Death Valley data for quality control.
The paper’s title — “Death Valley Illusion” — sums it up well. Just as the valley’s early reputation was built on myths of deadly heat and mirages of wealth, the 134°F world record appears to be another illusion — a product of human error, misplaced expectations, and a lack of oversight.
Death Valley Illusion: Evidence Against the 134 °F World Record
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
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Barring a Time Machine, there is no way to tell. And I dislike “correcting” raw data.
And Kansas is hotter than Death Valley ???
https://stacker.com/kansas/see-most-extreme-temperatures-kansas-history
BULL CRAP !!
But then again: Kansas IS flatter than a pancake
The Flint Hills are flat ?
😉
The Annals of Improbable Research (or its successor or predecessor) reported on a comparison of Kansas’s topographical cross section with a pancake, which found that yes indeed, Kansas is flatter than a pancake.
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/58976/kansas-really-flatter-pancake
They ignored the east 1/3 of the state ?
platonic flatness? Huh?
Expand a pancake to the size of Kansas and see how “smooth” it is.
Ft Riley wasn’t that flat.
True. Been there many times .
And drive from there to Mattfield Green …..
not flat at all .
After Florida, other states frequently ranked for their flatness include Illinois, North Dakota, Louisiana, and Minnesota.
What a way to be woke
Just invent temp date to please the neighbors, etc.,, a la MET in the UK
We don’t just invent it, we have supercomputers to fiddle it.
To err is human, to really foul things up requires a computer.
LOL!
LOL!
That’s the truth.
Why hasn’t Justin Rowlatt been consulted?
“my editor, Peter Barron, sat me down and said instead, “Listen, we’ve got a very clear vision for you, Justin. For a full year, we want you and your family to do everything you can to reduce your carbon emissions.” Now, this was back when climate change wasn’t nearly the massive, mainstream issue it is today.
…
For a mass audience, I think we’ve got to assume very little knowledge about climate change. Our audience metrics bear this out: People understand that climate change is a problem, but how it works—the role of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses—is not as well understood, never mind a concept like “net zero.” So, there’s still a lot of explaining that needs to be done – Covering Climate Now
I don’t know why you got negatives for that. Rowlatt was the BBC Ethical Man and regularly reported on the BBC website. Now about 15 years ago and he’s been richly rewarded for his efforts. Global travel and the go to man on Climate Change. Not bad for a man with a degree in philosophy, politics, and economics from Mansfield College, Oxford and not good enough to be a Labour MP.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ethicalman/2009/04/ethical_man_goes_down_to_the_woods.html
If I got -ves I missed it, but hardly surprising
What was insolation like back in 1913. That’s what causes high temperatures, not CO2. Maybe SO2 increased since then and caused cooling.
Solar insolation would have been the same for the surrounding stations we used to determine the Death Valley temperatures were bogus.
These days temperature records are almost impossible to get without UHI and adjustments.
But they can paint the station and surroundings Vantablack to get the wanted results.
Don’t understand why placing the site “over an irrigated alfalfa field” would give correct temperatures in Death Valley. The valley is sandy/rocky soil as I recall, which radiates heat much differently than an irrigated alfalfa field. The picture from 1916 appears adjacent to the field, but probably has more grass and weeds than the typical valley floor.
I have noted that temperatures outside around my house can and do vary by several degrees (using both the same and different thermometers), in calm windless shaded conditions. When I used to ride a motorcycle I often would encounter local areas where the temperature varied so much you could easily feel the difference as you passed through, in a matter of seconds.
When I go to the store the temperature in the black asphalt parking lot may be 10 F to 20 F higher than the surrounding meadow.
So please forgive me if I believe there is so much BS in “official” recorded temperatures that I never give them much weight…
From article:…”temperature should have been based…”.
Might have been or could have been but “should have been” seems arrogant.
What were the standards for a reporting station?
Interesting comment on Temps are cooler as elevation increases. That is definitely correct.
However, several years ago , I spent two weeks in glacier national park. Due to air flow it is often cooler in the valleys that 2k up in elevation. I suspect the cooler valleys in the region are local and not the general rule.
Valleys being cooler than the surrounding mountains is not an uncommon phenomena, especially in late night and early morning.
When the air is still, cool air will sink and pool. That is why owners of citrus groves would build small fans on platforms and run them on nights when the temperature was going to drop near freezing. To prevent the cold air from pooling.
I think It’s called temperature inversion and explains why Africans in rural areas build villages on the slopes rather deep in the valleys – it’s warmer there.
How Hot is it in Death Valley? It’s Hot, Fool, Were You Born on the Sun?
Remember my prior comment about driving across (north to south) Death Valley in July, 1990? Three of us geologists, looking for a cheap thrill, drove from Beaty, Nevada to Ridgecrest, California, and decided to cross Death Valley. We had a dark blue Blazer with a black vinyl roof (ouch!), and shortly after turning south on the road to Furnace Creek, the motor overheated. So we turned off the air conditioning. It still kept overheating, so we turned on the heater full blast (acts as another radiator), and continued. The black vinyl dash cracked in half. We saved our lives by drinking and pouring cold “survival fluids” over our heads. At Furnace Creek the sign said 126. Don’t go there in July.
We did it in February, and it rained:
I was at Ft Irwin (Mojave Desert) in 1983 for 30 days, desert training. It wasn’t all that hot, high 90s. But it rained like a mofo. We were told that it rained more in that 30 day span than it had in the last 10 years combined. Don’t know how true that was, but it sure felt like it. Had to keep watch for flash floods, and stick to higher ground, which is kind of a no-no when you’re a scout.
In the west, our rainfall is the highest seasonal variability in the country. This is due to the El Nino effect. Normally the eastern Pacific warm pool sets up circulation which sends Pacific storms to the Pacific Northwest meaning Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. In an El Nino year, those storms move south including California in their weather patterns. Summer rains in this region of California are under tropical storm and monsoonal rain of the Gulf of America. These blow up from Mexico and the Gulf of America.
and Cliff Mass is on first-name terms with every cloud that comes to the PNW 🙂
“To evaluate whether the 1913 reading made sense, the researchers used data from nearby weather stations”
That’s the problem. “Nearby” stations are not that station.
But they have the same air -mass over them. Which is why Spencer and Christy can do the analysis. It’s basic meteorology.
They used it to test the validity of readings. They did not do it to correct the suspected invalid readings.
Saying that a reading is invalid is not the same as putting what you think the correct reading should have been into the official record.
That is what the Met did.
Are you sure?
Those ‘nearby’ stations aren’t what any reasonable person would consider nearby. They’re over 100 miles away, in completely different climate zones.
At the surface maybe, but the analysis is done via their common air-mass.
Have you ever driven from Death Valley (85′ elevation) to Lone Pine (4,250′ elevation)? These are completely different worlds; especially in 1913.
Death Valley only had a little bit of green stuff because people pumped water up from shallow aquifers. Lone Pine was—before Mulholland’s ditch—a green paradise. Lone pine in Owens Valley is fairly dry now because it’s once very nice river was drained to turn the ugly deserts of Los Angeles green. Owens Valley is ranch land, in that environment, people graze cattle.
With Google Earth, look at the large canal between Lone Pine and Alabama Hills. That’s a lot of water being sent to Los Angeles. All that water flowed through the valley in the early days. Owens Valley was a lush pasture land in 1913. That evaporation cooled Lone Pine.
Like I said the differing micro-climates are irrelevant – the analysis is done via the homogeneous air-mass affecting all the stations in that analysis.
There is a known DALR
There are known station heights.
From those 2 things the higher stations can be compared with Greenland ranch …….
The 2024 chart is convincing. The 1913 chart shows the biggest barrier climatology has to accurate prediction. Historical data is too sparse.
The surface is what we’re trying to measure. Higher altitude air masses aren’t surface temp.
I didn’t say otherwise.
Look at the graphs.
There is a direct correlation between height and DALR.
There just is !
Except in this case for the 134F reading.
We know what the DALR is (a matter of physics = -g/Cp)
We know the height of the stations (a matter of fact see on any tops map).
See the graph.
The plots should all be in alignment.
The 134F is an unfeasible outlier.
How’s about taking it up with Roy Spencer, as I am just amplifying why what he and Christy did is sound basic meteorology.
https://www.drroyspencer.com/2024/11/death-valley-world-record-134-deg-f-is-biased-10-deg-too-high/
“In simple terms, the warm, high pressure airmasses that settle in over the SW U.S. in July are spatially uniform, with strong daytime vertical mixing producing temperature lapse rates approaching the dry adiabatic value. This allows comparisons between temperature at stations up to (for example) 100 miles away. The big differences in temperatures between neighboring stations, then, are primarily due to altitude. Daytime temperatures in the summer in dry climates decrease rapidly with height (see Fig. 1), providing perfect meteorological conditions for doing the kind of comparison I’m describing here.”
Does that mean we can say, with certainty, that every single day there couldn’t possibly be a difference in the local air masses? Ever?
At a large enough scale, the entire atmosphere is a common air-mass.
Specious.
”Common”, as for the stations concerned on that day (obviously).
Being in the center of a high pressure system will give you a different temperature that a temperature on the edge of the high pressure system.
The temperatures are NOT uniform under a high pressure system.
If those comparison stations are 100 miles away from Death Valley, they can give completely different temperatures to what is in Death Valley.
I personally felt 36 degree warmer temperature in a 120 drive in 1981. It was in flat North Dakota. Left Minot ND it was 68, got to Watford City ND it was 104. The temp change was extreme one side of the Missouri river,it was cool east side. On the west side I though my heater was running in my unconditioned pickup, the heat out of the vents were hot. Check no the heat was not on, rolled down the wind the blast furnace hit. Returned to Minot that afternoon is was 68. difference of elevation is about 400ft Watford is higher, on thing between the two is barbwire fences. So much being to tell what the temperature is one place comparing it against another.
I notice we’re given the very ugly grainy photocopy of the data, and not the very clear photograph. This causes us to not be able to see Denton’s very clear meticulous hand writing. What is obscured in the cloudy picture, is that the overnight low the evening before the 10th only fell to 98°F. This was very high compared to the typical overnight lows of 85 to 90°F. I surmise a cloud layer rolled in blocking heat escape (at night clouds block LW radiation out).
Thus, the morning of the tenth starts out at 98°F, and the temperature is only going up from there. Typical days at Greenland Ranch the temperature swing is around 35°; to start from 85° and go to 120° is the usual day. Thus, to start from 98° and go to 134° is not unexpected. Remember, this whole area is a rocky heat island. Furthermore it is in a heat bowl, with bare rock mountains on all sides. All that rock heats up, and releases that heat during the night. Except when cloud cover prevents the heat from escaping. Its like when you put your kettle into a tea-cozy to keep in the heat.
“I surmise a cloud layer rolled in blocking heat escape (at night clouds block LW radiation out).”
Yes, it could be something as simple as that.
And here we have modern day people questioning the character of the recorder of the data at Death Valley in 1913. I think this is pure speculation and is unacceptable to attribute dishonest motives to the people involved without any evidence.
Speaking of dishonest motives: Roy and John should explore the dishonest motives of Phil Jones with his creation of the bogus, bastardized Hockey Stick chart. Look into how Phil Jones got a “hotter and hotter and hotter” temperature profile out of regional temperature data that has no such “hotter and hotter and hotter” profile. Roy and John let this Hockey Stick lie sit for decades without a question, but they come down hard on Death Valley. I don’t get it. How about doing something that actually applies to the Human-caused Global Warming/Climate Change meme, like challenging the conventional wisdom that the bogus Hockey Stick chart represents reality?
Challenging the 134F temperature at Death Valley does nothing constructive.
A lot of integrity has been spent setting a few decades of “hottest ever”. If the curators start behaving honestly then it will look like AGW reversed into an ice age scare again. What an irony it would be if climatologists couldn’t correctly point out rising temperatures in the 2030’s because they couldn’t admit the temperatures were a little lower than they’d said in the 2020’s.
“They” desperately needed an opponent like DJT to help them reset the records. It must be stressful to live the derangement outside while quietly backing him inside.
Is Brer Rabbit okay to reference in 2025? I know the “don’t throw me into the briar patch” bit. Not sure whether there were overt -ist themes.
Interesting. Thanks.
I visited Death Valley only once. Came out to the north into NV on Daylight Pass Road.
We stop to fix lunch on a short spur and saw wild horses — incl. a fancy black stallion.
I recommend the trip. Just not at high sun season.
Mouldy old dough…
The National Audit Office has published a bombshell report which reveals 98% of homes with external wall insulation installed under the government’s own Energy Company Obligation (ECO) now require urgent repair work to mend “major issues” that will lead to damp and mould. Thousands of homes are affected… https://order-order.com/2025/10/14/thousands-of-homes-need-insulation-repair-work-after-botched-government-scheme/
You forgot to add ‘story tip’ Strat.
A major pillar of the UKs ill-conceived net zero policy is the insulation of the old housing stock, indeed, if heat pumps are to stand any chance of providing a decent level of comfort at reasonable operating costs, it’s essential. The trouble is that most of these houses were built to ‘breathe’. Almost any type of insulation disrupts this and risks serious problems with damp, condensation, rot, and mould.
Ha! 98%. Those will be green jobs created.
If the world has warmed why haven’t the Death Valley Records been broken?
Thomas Karl hasn’t yet Karlized the data
I suspect the reason there’s been no warming in Death Valley is the real cause of warming has been natural ocean cycles. This will lead to more warming in coastal regions and almost no warming inland. If CO2 was the cause of the warming, it would be different.
Does inland station data agree? Denver will be UHI’d. Detroit, non airport, might be be an interesting UHI study – can you see the population decline as industry leaves. Rust belt? There are places in Ohio (US Steel) and Michigan (Retired automobile nameplates) where one should see UHI reversed while checking RM’s suspicion.
What is different from this ‘investigation’ that aims to change historical data than what the rest of the global warmists are doing by cooling the past and warming the present repeatedly? Nothing at all. What is the purpose of this investigation? What is the true motif?
Strange things happen. There was a story about Antarctica having a very high reading that was explainable by there having been a very rare flow of air from higher to lower causing the normal lapse rate to be multiplied significantly.
Nothing says something similar could not have been happening. Like the Santa Anna Winds coming down in California causing massive heat spikes.
I do not support using the same lies the warmists use for changing past temperatures even if the people doing it nominally seem to be on my side of the argument. Stop effing with the historical record. We have far more than the required modern day temperature readings and a very rapidly increasing CO2 level to prove if it is causing warming and how much that we do not need to delve into the past, make changes to it, and think we can get better results!
Who has proposed changing the raw data? The only recommendation has been to withdraw the official record given the probability that the record it is based on is faulty.
Again, this is people trying to get rid of inconvenient data without actually proving their case with empirical evidence. It is no better than all the changes they make for historical records, cooling the past almost exclusively.
Somehow they converted the 1930s and 1940s to cool periods easily overwhelmed by todays adjusted temperatures.
“Again, this is people trying to get rid of inconvenient data without actually proving their case with empirical evidence. It is no better than all the changes they make for historical records, cooling the past almost exclusively.”
I agree. This study is speculation.
“Somehow they converted the 1930s and 1940s to cool periods easily overwhelmed by todays adjusted temperatures.”
Yeah! That’s what Roy and John should be looking into. They should find out how the Climate Alarmists turned a cyclical climate into a Hockey Stick climate. No Hockey Sticks in the original, written, historical records. Why is that, Roy and John?
Death Valley is a diversion.
The solar swing from 1912 to 1913 is very similar to 2024 to 2025. The 1913 solar intensity was 0.85W/m^2 higher from March equinox to July solstice than same period in 1912. Although the NH heating season was 1W/m^2 down in 1913 compared with 2025 the swing from 1912 to 1913 was similar to 2024 to 2025..
It is worth noting that there were a number of current snow records set across the NH in late 1913. Denver set its current record snowstorm of 46 inches from 1-5 Dec 1913.
So the solar data is consistent with 1913 having a warm summer. The Sun was near the second peak of its northern excursion that began in 1901 and swung south in 1918. In 1909 there was an intermediate minimum but it was still north of Earth’s elliptic. The second peak was 1914.
Most weather and climate observations are reasonably well explained by solar power on Earth. However it is important to note that the relationship has some complexity and is always changing.
We have seen this before. I’m not too concerned about it. I’m not sure it justifies fooling around with a 100 plus year record. Here are the problems as I see them. Apparently some don’t trust the guy recording the temperatures, we suffer that same problem today. Some worry that surrounding stations didn’t record similarly high temperatures. It is mentioned that the other stations were at different elevations suggesting that is the only variable we need to use to show some shenanigans took place at Greenland Ranch. I don’t think that is enough evidence. What was the accuracy of the instruments used at Greenland Ranch and the other stations at the time. Temperatures of 130F were recorded there in 2020 and 2021, I assume with the best instruments available. A four degree difference. The question is asked if we are in a warming world why hasn’t the station recorded even higher temperatures in the last 100 plus years? Indeed, maybe we aren’t in the kind of warming world you expected. The most I would say should be done is to add an asterisk to the record. We don’t know what the instrument read, we don’t know that the record was fudged, we don’t know that the fella recording the temperature felt so strong about what he was doing that he knowingly cheated and if he did how did he arrive at the number 134F?
“The most I would say should be done is to add an asterisk to the record. We don’t know what the instrument read, we don’t know that the record was fudged, we don’t know that the fella recording the temperature felt so strong about what he was doing that he knowingly cheated and if he did how did he arrive at the number 134F?”
I think that’s the right approach. There are a lot of things we don’t know about the situation. Speculating doesn’t change that.
But it wasn’t. Arguing about could’a, would’a, should’a . . . is just silly. Some location on Earth has to be the hottest, and some the coldest, at any given point of time.
Trying to measure air temperature is extremely difficult, and anybody who says they can do so with a thermometer is sadly mistaken. What’s the point, anyway?
Air temperature goes up and down, the land itself goes up and down (and sideways!), and the sea is constantly in motion.
The fact remains that adding CO2 to air won’t make it hotter, and anybody (including “climate scientists”) who believes otherwise is ignorant and gullible. Or insane – refusing to accept reality.
“Trying to measure air temperature is extremely difficult, and anybody who says they can do so with a thermometer is sadly mistaken.
Especially when they are located over 100 years down the line.
“What’s the point, anyway?”
That’s my main question. What is gained by this speculation/study?
I must say, this effort irritates the hell out of me. For a number of reasons.
A smug sense of self-satisfaction for the authors, who obviously can’t find anything better to occupy their time.
Until it can be conclusively demonstrated otherwise, I will accept
Of course, this begs the question – how do you know what’s true? And even if it’s true, is it useful? Even though Isaac Newton’s alchemical researches might be considered nonsensical, some of his alchemical discoveries turned out to be useful – as a side effect.
If people are prepared to use other peoples’ money to have their speculations published, and publishers can generate tens of billions in profits for themselves, what’s the harm? Everything will no doubt sort itself out in the end!
Back to the Royal Society’s motto – “Nullius in Verba”.
Take Dr Spencer and Dr Christy’s words at face value, or return to watching “Days of Our Lives” – whatever gives you the most enjoyment. At least we are aware that actors tell lies for a living , whereas many “scientists” pretend otherwise, and take umbrage at anyone who has the temerity to suggest that they might actually be ignorant and gullible.
Mods!
I made a comment about the record highs for Columbus Ohio and the state of Ohio that has disappeared.
Aside from my comments, here’s the link I provided. (I’ve added a “T” at the beginning of the link in case the link itself was the issue.)
Thttps://www.dispatch.com/story/news/local/2024/07/31/hottest-days-columbus-history-heatwave-ohio-drought-weather-global-warming/74456872007/
PS This comment doesn’t repeat my previous comments. They had to do with some likely to claim that these were only LOCAL and not Global.
OOPS!
I made that comment under a different post.
Sorry.
From the article: “Probably”, “Likely”.
This is not science. It is speculation and assumptions.
Roy and John should dig into the fraud that is the Hockey Stick Global Temperature chart.
What’s the point in challenging one Death Valley temperature? And with nothing other than speculation. What do we gain if the actual temperature was 120F?
Australia’s hottest day was January 2nd, 1960. Equalled just once since then. Using alarmist logic there is either no CAGW or one-off record temps mean nothing or local records mean nothing. Also in 2003 I observed 57.1 degC in Oman – even the young Omani lads working in it thought it was hot. Being an engineer and also an amateur weather watcher I did everything I could to ensure the gauge was in a well ventilated space away from conductive and radiating surfaces. 20 minutes later the gauge read 56.9 degC. Older Omani engineers reported seeing 61 degC in earlier times.
To be honest and scientific, if the data shown to be invalid, it should be declared not fit for use and eliminated.
We can not return to the times the temperature was recorded so determining accurate correction factors is impossible. Adjusting inaccurate recordings is nothing more than guessing. The uncertainty in guessing destroys the scientific value of the data.
” but even in today’s warmer climate, it has never again reached 134°F.”
and that’s where it went off the rails. those prycks could build a uranium bomb but couldn’t measure temperature.
oh well. guess there were no other explanations.