The National Weather Service is warning of “dangerously hot conditions” in many areas of the western United States over the next few days.
A weather station in California’s Death Valley recorded a measurement of 130 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday amid a record-breaking heatwave currently affecting much of the U. S. west coast. Scorching conditions are expected to persist over the next few days as some areas face rolling power outages. The Death Valley measurement—measured at Furnace Creek near the border with Nevada—still needs to be verified by the National Weather Service (NWS,) but if it is confirmed, it could be the highest temperature ever reliably recorded on Earth. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) currently considers Earth’s hottest known temperature to be 134 degrees Fahrenheit, recorded on July 10, 1913—also in Death Valley. Get your unlimited Newsweek trial > However, some experts such as weather historian Christopher Burt have questioned the 1913 reading—even though it was officially verified at the time—arguing it is not reliable and “essentially not possible from a meteorological perspective,” The Guardian reported. A WMO-verified temperature of 131 degrees Fahrenheit was recorded at Kebili, Tunisia, in 1931, although this too has been disputed by some experts, with Burt arguing it had “serious credibility issues,” among many other measurements from this era. Until now, the hottest reliably recorded temperature on Earth was 129.2 degrees Fahrenheit, recorded at Death Valley (again) in 2013. However, some extreme weather experts say Sunday’s reading may have topped them all. “It’s quite possible the Death Valley high set a new global heat record.
