Furnace Creek, the hottest place on earth?
Furnace Creek, the name really tells the story. It蘑菇视频 a hot place located in the middle of Death Valley, California. Last Sunday, the temperature at the Furnace Creek weather station, which was established in 1883, hit 128 degrees. It蘑菇视频 been hotter. In 2013, Furnace Creek turned in what appeared to be the world蘑菇视频 record high temperature of 129.2.
One hundred years earlier in 1913, an unofficial reading of 134 claimed to be the record and it also came from the Furnace Creek weather station. The reading is suspect and it is not collaborated with temperatures in the surrounding area.Weather historian Christopher Burt and a group of weather experts challenged the reading and feel it was observer error so the official record of 129.2 stands as the record for now.
Last Sunday was also hot in a lot of places in our Southwest. Palm Springs hit 121 degrees, Phoenix 116 and Las Vegas 115 degrees, respectfully. Last week, the heat index in New Orleans at 1 a.m. was a very uncomfortable 107 degrees. The heat index is a measure of the temperature and the humidity sometimes known as the 鈥渞eal feel鈥� temperature.
About 10 years ago, I had several conversations with Christopher Burt when I agreed to donate my 50 year collection of the magazine 鈥淲eather Wise鈥� to him since he collected weather data from many sources and published an interesting book titled 鈥淓xtreme Weather.鈥�
For anyone that is interested in weather it is a fascinating book on all aspects of what weather is capable of bringing to a particular area. I get much of my information for the weekly column from his book.
I also had the pleasure of visiting Furnace Creek some years back. Knowing a bit about the weather, we visited in January when high temperatures are in the upper 60s. Furnace Creek is unique in that it sits 190 feet below sea level and has a population of 24 down from 31 ten years earlier. Rainfall is sparse averaging only 2.36 inches per year and the springs that originally brought a little water to the area have mostly dried due to the needs of the community. Old timers may remember the early television commercials showing the 20 mule teams hauling wagon trains of borax across the desert.
Perhaps the hottest day ever recorded on our planet also occurred at Furnace Creek. On July 19, 2005, the morning low was 101 and the afternoon high reached 129 for an average that day of 115 degrees. In 1914, the temperature was above 120 for 43 consecutive days. The average July temperature is 117 degrees. And we think 90 is hot.
Closer to home it蘑菇视频 been a hot one so far with 12 days of temperatures being 90 degrees or better and the forecast has more to come. Stay cool.