One of the worst air temperatures recorded anywhere on the planet in at least a century, and possibly ever, was reached in Death Valley in the Mojave Desert of California, where it rose to 54.4 Celsius (130 Fahrenheit). .
An automated observation system conducted by the U.S. National Water Service in the densely populated Furnace Creek in the valley reported the record at 15.41 hours (22:41 GMT) on Sunday on the summit of an extreme heat wave, a more frequent occurrence due to climate change.
It was a dry heat: Humidity dropped to 7 percent. But it felt ‘insanely hot’ all the same, according to meteorologist Daniel Berc at the Bureau of Las Vegas’ weather service. A heat wave that would roast much of the western United States would continue throughout the week, he said on Monday.
“It’s literally like being in an oven,” he said in a telephone interview. “Today is another day that we can take another run at 130F.”
Tourists took selfies Monday through an open, unofficial thermometer at the Death Valley Visitor Center, while exposing metal surfaces with bare skin.
Those living and working in Furnace Creek, which had a population of 24 at the 2010 census, saw reason in the bill.
“We are seeing more records being broken on a daily and monthly level,” said Brandi Stewart, a public information officer for Death Valley National Park who can see the Furnace Creek weather station from her window. “It’s important that we see more records broken.”
Effects of climate change
A temperature of 134F (56.7C) was recorded in Death Valley in July 1913, and Kebili, Tunisia, is said to have hit 131F in July 1931, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
But recent research by Christopher Burt, an expert on extreme weather, has led meteorologists to view these older records as the results of observational error.
Climate change has pushed world temperatures to new heights. In Europe, northern Spain broke local warming records in July, while wheat fields in France burned.
Forests in Siberian Russia are seeing unusual forest fires, while Arctic sea ice is shrinking to a record low before July due to melting.
A visitor to Death Valley National Park tries to bake an egg on Monday amid extreme heat in the area [David Becker/Reuters]
Summer heat is so regularly extreme that tourists are warned to drink at least four liters (one gallon) of water every day, carry extra water in their cars, stay close to their cars and see themselves and others for dizziness, nausea and other symptoms of potentially fatal disease of heat.
In Furnace Creek, staff and guests at The Oasis hotel were hired to wear hats and drink water without being outside, according to general manager John Kukreja.
He tells guests that extreme heat does strange, misleading things to the body.
“You will sweat, and the sweat will dry immediately, and you will never know that you are actually feeling very hot,” he said. “Your hair is at the end. It’s almost like you feel cold, like guozebobs.”
The extreme heat has also started fires in the region.
Saturday, a tornado erupted at a bushfire near Chilcoot, California, ravaged by the western hot wave.
The fire was burning “so intense that it was just so hot” that air came in a vortex just like what happens in some thunderstorms, said Dawn Johnson, senior meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Reno, Nevada.
“It almost looks like a bomb went off.”
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