El Azizia Falls to Death Valley

The hottest place in the United States is and has been for a long time Death Valley, California. Averaging a high temperature of 115 degrees F during the month of July, frying an egg on pavement would hardly be an issue. The highest temperature ever recorded there was 134 degrees F back on July 10, 1913, which for the past 90 years has sat second in the world to the 136 degree F reading, measured in El Azizia, Lybia. That is until today, when the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) officially announced the 136 degree measurement to be invalid. The Rapporteur of Climate and Weather Extremes for the WMO, Randy Cerveny, stated “When we compared the observations to surrounding areas and to other measurements before and after the 1922 reading, they simply did not match up”. There was further reasoning based on geography and poor instrumentation, but the important thing to take away from this discovery is there is a new world record high temperature, and its home is in the United States. 

This investigation demonstrates the continual improvements and advancements of weather and technology. The WMO committee stated, "Researchers can now reanalyze past weather records in much more detail and with greater precision than ever before. The end result is an even better set of data for analysis of important global and regional questions involving climate change." It is worthwhile to note that our new world record high temperature of 134 degrees in Death Valley, CA is considered accurate and not under investigation. This is a mark not likely to be broken for quite some time, regardless of any climate change.