The official record still dates from 1913 in Death Valley, although it is regularly questioned. When we rely on satellite data, the record climbs to more than 80°C!
the official heat record was recorded on July 10, 1913 at Furnace Creek in California’s famous Death Valley. The temperature of theair was then measured at 56.7°C. The place even holds the record for the highest ground temperature, with 93.9°C measured on July 15, 1972. Located in a basin 86 meters below sea level where hot air is trapped, Death Valley is aptly named since temperatures regularly exceed 45°C in summer. The record of 56.7°C has however been questioned on several occasions. On September 13, 1922, another record of 58°C was declared in El Azizia, Libya, but it was invalidated in 2012 by the World Meteorological Organization which questioned its reliability.
Meteorological stations far from covering the Planet
It is in fact very difficult to have absolute certainty in the matter. Because, obviously, everything depends on the measurement conditions: in full sun, the difference can expect several degrees compared to a shaded area. The 11,000 measuring stations installed worldwide thus measure the air temperature in an approved manner at a height of 1.5 meters in a ventilated place. But this represents barely one station every 13,000 km2 ! Many hard-to-reach areas, including the deserts, are devoid of any measuring instrument.
Ground temperature: 80.8°C measured in Iran and Mexico!
For the past twenty years, scientists have therefore used satellites as Aquaequipped with the Modis instrument (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer), which notably measure the radiative balance of soils. However, the temperature on the ground is much higher than the temperature of the air: think of the bitumen burning in the car parks in the summer or in the sand on the beach. In 2011, a study confirmed that the surface temperature record is 70.5°C, recorded in 2005 in the Lut desert, southeast of Iran. In 2021, a new study came up with an even more hair-raising result, with 80.8°C measured in the Lut desert as well as in the Sonoran desert in Mexico.
Temperature amplitude record and cold record
According to this same study, the record oftemperature range is 81.8°C, recorded on July 20, 2006 in the Qaidam basin, a desert region in the northeast of the Tibetan plateau. The temperature thus rose that day from -23.7°C to 58.1°C in less than 24 hours! Without surprise, cold record is held by Antarctica, with -89.2°C for air temperature and -110°.9°C for ground temperature.
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