The hottest temperature cools a bit, study reveals

ARIZONA

The highest temperature ever recorded was in Death Valley, on July 10, 1913.

If you think this summer was hot, it’s nothing compared to the summer of 1913, when the hottest temperature ever recorded was a searing 134 degrees Fahrenheit in Death Valley, California. But while that reading was taken 99 years ago, it is only being recognized today by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) as the most extreme temperature ever recorded, Science Daily reported yesterday.

That’s because an international team of meteorologists recently finished an in-depth investigation of what had been the world-record temperature extreme of 58 degrees Celsius (136.4 degrees Fahrenheit), recorded on Sept. 13, 1922, in El Azizia, Libya. The group found that there were enough questions surrounding the measurement and how it was made that it was probably inaccurate, overturning the record 90 years to the day it was recorded.

Systematic errors

“We found systematic errors in the 1922 reading,” said Randy Cerveny, an Arizona State University (ASU) President’s Professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning. “This change to the record books required significant sleuthing and a lot of forensic records work,” said Cerveny, who also is the Rapporteur of Climate and Weather Extremes for the WMO, the person responsible for keeping worldwide weather records.

Officially, the “new” world record temperature extreme is 56.7 degrees Celsius (134 degrees Fahrenheit), recorded on July 10, 1913, at Greenland Ranch in Death Valley, California.

“In the heart of every meteorologist and climatologist beats the soul of a detective,” said Cerveny. In this case the weather detectives had to work around an unfolding revolution in Libya. Cerveny said the El Azizia temperature had long been thought of as dubious. It was recorded in 1922 at what was then an Italian army base.