One of the most common sayings during the summer is: “it isn’t the heat that gets you, it’s the humidity.” While that surely can be the case, with sweltering moisture in the air making it even harder for your body to cool off on an already unbearably hot day, some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded did so in notably dry areas.
In honor of the anniversary of the hottest air temperature recorded on July 10th, let’s look back at some record-breaking temperatures reported around the world.
In order to reach an agreement on what the hottest temperature ever recorded was, it's important to determine how temperature is reported. The standard means of recording air temperature is to measure it 1.5 meters (or 4’11") above the ground by thermometer shielded by direct sunlight. More reliable surface temperatures have been reported since the 1880s worldwide, when more organized efforts were made to keep global efforts.
One of the longest-standing records of the highest recorded temperature on earth was reported in ‘Aziziya, a town in modern-day Libya, measured on September 13, 1922. The air temperature that day was reported as 136.4°F (58°C), breaking the previous record set nearly a decade earlier in Death Valley, California (more on that later). This record stood as the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth for 90 years until the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) deemed the observation illegitimate in 2012.
According to the WMO, it was found that there were inconsistencies and general issues leading up to the 1922 measurement that casts some serious doubt to the accuracy of the heat record. For instance, shortly before the record-breaking reading, the thermometer used at the weather station was damaged and subsequently replaced with an ordinary maximum-minimum thermometer. This was more likely not calibrated correctly. Furthermore, an inexperienced recordkeeper had been placed on duty the week of the record tempearture and likely read the thermometer from the wrong end of the cylinder. As a result, the measurement on September 13, 1922, was likely 7 to 8°C too high.
After the WMO deemed the Libyan measurement inaccurate, the previous record reported in Death Valley, California on July 10, 1913 was again the highest temperature ever recorded.
The measurement was specifically taken in Furnace Creek Ranch within Death Valley, California where the tempearture registered at 134.1°F (56.7°C). Until the Libyan reading in 1922, the Furnace Creek record stood strong, and was again certified as the highest record after the 2012 dismissal by the WMO.
Despite this, there has been even more debate since the Libyan measurement was delegitimized on whether the Death Valley record, taken over 110 years ago, is even accurate. Should the 1913 record be decertified again, the highest established record would fall to a reading of 129.2°F (54.0°C), also recorded in Death Valley on June 20, 2013 (this reading was tied with one report in Mitribah, Kuwait on July 21, 2016). Additional readings higher than this of 130.0°F (54.4°F) have been measured since then in Furnace Creek, however these have yet to be officially validated.
No matter what if it's over 100 degrees or just very humid outside, taking safety precautions against extreme heat is important to prevent serious health complications. We have a detailed look at Staying Safe in Summer Heat here
