Death Valley just recorded the hottest month ever observed on the planet
The hottest place on Earth just observed its hottest month.
Death Valley, Calif., registered an average July temperature of 108.5 degrees, the highest monthly value ever recorded among thousands of weather stations around the globe, according to Brian Brettschneider, a climatologist based in Alaska.
The scorching month in Death Valley came as the planet’s average temperature reached its highest level on two straight days. The Earth has set high temperature records over the past 13 months. Scientists say the warmth is linked to decades of global heating from human emissions of greenhouse gases.
July was also the hottest month on record for dozens of cities in the western United States, including Sacramento, Las Vegas and Portland, Ore.
Death Valley’s high temperatures ranged from 111 to 129 degrees. It reached at least 125 on nine consecutive days from July 4 to 12. At night, the mercury only dipped below 90 twice and remained in the triple digits three times.
Amid the unforgiving stretch of hot days and nights, a motorcyclist died of heat exposure July 6, a woman was rescued because of heat-related illness July 18 and a man was rescued July 20 after “suffering full-thickness burns on his feet,” according to the National Park Service.
The world’s previous hottest month was also observed in Death Valley, when its average July temperature was 108.1 degrees in 2018.
This July’s maximum temperature of 129 on July 7 was a mere degree short of its high of 130 degrees on July 9, 2021, and Aug. 16, 2020, the hottest ever reliably measured on the planet. Death Valley reportedly reached 134 degrees on July 10, 1913, but climatologists have questioned the validity of that measurement.
Situated in California’s Mojave Desert, Death Valley is often the hottest place on Earth because of its low elevation – the lowest in North America – and the steep mountains that surround it. Furnace Creek, where the official weather station is located, sits at 190 feet below sea level and is infamous for its searing heat.
A scorching July throughout the West
Many cites across the western United States also endured a historically hot July. Las Vegas was among the nation’s toastiest cities with an average July temperature of 99.9 degrees, its hottest month on record. It also registered its hottest day on record on July 7, when it posted a high of 120.
Temperatures of 110 degrees or higher reached as far north as Oregon, Idaho and Washington in July. Weather historian Don Sutherland documented several of the more notable heat records:
-In California, Palmdale and Lancaster set records for duration of extreme heat, with both sites reaching 100 degrees or higher on 25 consecutive days, and at least 110 degrees on six consecutive days.
-Phoenix reached at least 105 degrees Wednesday for a 57th consecutive day, breaking its previous record streak of 56 days in 2023. The city also recorded a low temperature of 80 degrees or warmer Wednesday for the 57th consecutive day, exceeding the record of 51 days in 2023.
-Las Vegas reached 105 degrees or higher for the 50th time this year on July 29, its earliest date on record. The previous earliest was Aug. 11. The city has reached at least 110 degrees on 29 days this year, tying the record from 1940. It also experienced its hottest 31-day period on record with an average high of 111.9 degrees from late June to late July.
-Boise, Idaho, reached at least 105 degrees on a record nine days this year, breaking the previous mark of five in 1898. It also tied its record of nine consecutive days reaching 100 degrees or higher.
-Redding, Calif., experienced its hottest three-week period on record from June 28 to July 18, with an average high of 108.4 degrees.
-Seattle reached 80 degrees or higher on a record 17 consecutive days, breaking the previous mark of 15 days.
After a short pause earlier in the week, the heat is building in the West once again. Temperatures are expected to run 10 to 15 degrees above normal across portions of the Pacific Northwest and northern Plains through Saturday, with the focus of excessive heat then shifting to Southern California and the Desert Southwest this weekend into next week, exacerbating an already active wildfire season.