The astonishingly hot temperatures occurred amid a punishing heat wave in the West, focused between interior Oregon, Central Valley in California and southern Nevada. Intensified by human-caused climate change, the heat wave is fueling fast-moving wildfires and only slowly abating.
Sunday’s probable world record daily average temperature was registered at the Stovepipe Wells weather station in the northern part of Death Valley National Park. It is separate from the more frequently referenced temperature measurements at Death Valley’s Furnace Creek, about 18 miles to the southeast. Furnace Creek is home to the highest maximum temperature recorded on the planet: 134 degrees, set July 10, 1913.
The afternoon high that day in Stovepipe Wells of 128.6 was its highest on record (since 2004). It was actually hotter in Furnace Creek on Friday and Saturday, where the temperature soared to 130 and 129.4 degrees, but somewhat lower minimum temperatures resulted in less searing averages compared with Stovepipe Wells. (Low temperatures at Furnace Creek on Friday and Saturday were 104 and 99 compared with Stovepipe Wells’s 108 on Sunday.)
News of Sunday’s record-setting average temperature at Stovepipe Wells was first posted on Twitter by Thierry Goose, who monitors internal weather data from Canada, and corroborated by both Maximiliano Herrera, an expert on world weather extremes, and Etienne Kapikian, a forecaster with Meteo France.
Historic heat in Death Valley began Friday
The record-setting 24 hours in Stovepipe Wells on Sunday capped a blistering three-day stretch in Death Valley, which began with the 130-degree high at Furnace Creek on Friday. It equaled the 130-degree mark set in August in the same location and, if confirmed, would mark the planet’s highest temperature since at least 1931.
Only two other known measurements have been higher: (1)The 134-degree reading from Furnace Creek in 1913, and (2) a 131-degree reading from Kebili, Tunisia, set July 7, 1931.
In other words, the 130-degree readings set at Furnace Creek both Friday and last year, if validated, may be the highest pair of reliably measured temperatures observed on Earth.
Even if you accept the 1913 high temperature, the daily average temperatures this year and last year are hotter because of much higher minimum temperatures. On Friday, when the high was 130, the low was 104. But in 1913, when the high was reportedly 134, the low was a much milder 85.
The exceptionally high temperatures in Furnace Creek have also been notable for their longevity. They reached 126 on Wednesday and Thursday, before peaking at 130 on Friday. On Saturday and Sunday, they climbed to 129.4 and 127.9. Monday’s forecast again calls for highs to reach the high 120s. The low hasn’t fallen below 99 degrees since Tuesday.
Record heat throughout the West
Since late last week, historically significant heat has roasted surrounding locations as far west as western Colorado and as far north as Northern California, including:
- Grand Junction, Colo., which reached an all-time high of 107 degrees on Friday.
- Las Vegas, which tied its record of 117 on Saturday.
- St. George, Utah, which reached 117 degrees on Saturday, preliminarily tying the state’s temperature record.
- Desert Rock, Nev., and Barstow-Daggett, Calif., which matched their all-time highs of 113 and 118 on Saturday, respectively.
- Bishop, Calif., which set an all-time high of 111 on Saturday, surpassing the previous mark of 110.
- Downtown Sacramento, which posted its second-highest temperature recorded, reaching 113 degrees Saturday, just one off its all-time high of 114. California’s capital city hit at least 110 for a record-tying third straight day.
Heat fuels wildfires, relief coming in some areas
The hot and exceptionally dry weather has created tinderbox conditions for the rapid spread of wildfires. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, 59 large blazes are burning in a dozen states, 11 of them in California and Oregon. Smoke from wildfires in the West and British Columbia spread over “most of the western half of the U.S.,” according to the National Weather Service.
As of early Monday, the Bootleg Fire in southwest Oregon had burned more than 153,000 acres, the blaze doubling in size daily between Friday and Sunday.
The fire had made electricity transmission into California unreliable, and the state’s grid operator urged consumers to conserve energy on Monday.
Temperatures on Monday and Tuesday will remain above normal in the Southwest and California’s Central Valley but will back off gradually from record-setting territory.
However, long-range computer models show potential for another intense heat wave in the West building by next weekend, focused on the central and northern Rockies, which could bring more exceptionally high temperatures.
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Death Valley had planet’s hottest 24 hours on record Sunday amid punishing heat wave - The Washington Post
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