SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Heatwaves rise near a heat danger warning sign on the eve of the AdventurCORPS Badwater 135 ultra-marathon race on July 14, 2013 in Death Valley National Park, California. (Photo: David McNew/Getty Images)
Climate Activists and Scientists Raise Alarm After Death Valley Endures Potentially Record-Breaking 130oF
"It's not a record that will last," says author and activist Bill McKibben.
Aug 17, 2020
The temperature in eastern California's Death Valley, one of the hottest places on the planet, hit a potentially record-breaking 130oF on Sunday, according to a preliminary reading--an event that led alarmed activists and scientists to reiterate calls for urgent global action to combat the climate crisis.
"Please understand: it will get hotter, and hotter, and hotter, so long as we burn fossil fuels. This is irreversible global heating."
--Peter Kalmus, climate scientist
"We are in a climate emergency," meteorologist and writer Eric Holthaus declared on Twitter Sunday, sharing data from the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS).
The NWS confirmed in a statement Sunday that the high temperature--which came in the midst of an ongoing heatwave in the southwestern United States--was recorded at 3:41 pm local time by the agency's automated observation system near the Furnace Creek Visitor Center in Death Valley National Park.
"If verified, this will be the hottest temperature officially verified since July of 1913, also at Death Valley," the NWS added. "As this is an extreme temperature event, the recorded temperature will need to undergo a formal review. A Climate Extremes Committee will be formed to verify the validity of the 130degF reading."
CNN's Jon Passantino explained Sunday that "the only two higher temperatures ever recorded on Earth were in Death Valley (1913) and Tunisia (1931), but both records have been in some dispute. At [130oF] today in California, we very well may have officially recorded the world's hottest [temperature]."
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recognized the disputed Tunisia record in a tweet Sunday and said the United Nations agency will also review the temperature reported in Death Valley.
"Everything I've seen so far indicates that is a legitimate observation," Randy Cerveny, who leads the WMO's weather and climate extremes team, told the Washington Post. "I am recommending that the World Meteorological Organization preliminarily accept the observation. In the upcoming weeks, we will, of course, be examining it in detail, along with the U.S. National Climate Extremes Committee, using one of our international evaluation teams."
In a Monday blog post for the American Geophysical Union, meteorologist Dan Satterfield addressed the past records and predictions about what's to come, writing:
Bob Henson, author of some of the best books on weather out there, told me: "It's quite possible the Death Valley high set a new global heat record. The extreme nature of the surrounding weather pattern makes such a reading plausible, so the case deserves a solid review. There are nagging questions about the validity of even hotter reports from Death Valley in 1913 and Tunisia in 1931. What we can say with high confidence is that, if confirmed, this is the highest temperature observed on Earth in almost a century."
What is even more remarkable about the heat in Death Valley today is that it's now mid-August. The sun angle is lower and the days are shorter, making it less likely to see an all-time record high there. I was thinking 128 might be possible when I looked at the pattern last week, but it seems that it managed to go even higher. If you're thinking that the rising greenhouse gases mean this record will not likely last long, I cannot disagree.
Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, agreed in a statement Monday.
"It now appears that we've crossed yet another worrying threshold, setting the apparent hottest temperature ever recorded on this planet since valid records have been kept," Mann said. "Of course, that record too shall fall soon enough if we continue to pollute the atmosphere with carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels."
Author and activist Bill McKibben, who co-founded the advocacy group 350.org, similarly pointed out that even if the high temperature in Death Valley is verified as a new record, it likely won't last.
Death Valley, as the Post detailed Sunday, "is the lowest, driest, and hottest location in the United States. Furnace Creek, where its temperature is measured, sits at 190 feet below sea level in the Mojave Desert of southeastern California. It is notorious for its blistering heat."
Recognizing that the historically hot region may have recorded the highest temperature ever reliably measured on Earth, Peter Kalmus, a climate scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, put the news in the context of the human-caused planetary emergency.
"Please understand: it will get hotter, and hotter, and hotter, so long as we burn fossil fuels. This is irreversible global heating," Kalmus wrote on Twitter, including a hashtag calling for the immediate implementation of a Green New Deal.
Author and on-air commentator Adrienne Lawrence noted that the possible record in California came just before the Trump administration on Monday finalized a controversial drilling plan for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
As Common Dreams reported Monday, after the U.S. Interior Department announced the drilling plan for the refuge, environmental advocacy groups responded with vows to fight against it in court.
This post has been updated with comment from Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
The temperature in eastern California's Death Valley, one of the hottest places on the planet, hit a potentially record-breaking 130oF on Sunday, according to a preliminary reading--an event that led alarmed activists and scientists to reiterate calls for urgent global action to combat the climate crisis.
"Please understand: it will get hotter, and hotter, and hotter, so long as we burn fossil fuels. This is irreversible global heating."
--Peter Kalmus, climate scientist
"We are in a climate emergency," meteorologist and writer Eric Holthaus declared on Twitter Sunday, sharing data from the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS).
The NWS confirmed in a statement Sunday that the high temperature--which came in the midst of an ongoing heatwave in the southwestern United States--was recorded at 3:41 pm local time by the agency's automated observation system near the Furnace Creek Visitor Center in Death Valley National Park.
"If verified, this will be the hottest temperature officially verified since July of 1913, also at Death Valley," the NWS added. "As this is an extreme temperature event, the recorded temperature will need to undergo a formal review. A Climate Extremes Committee will be formed to verify the validity of the 130degF reading."
CNN's Jon Passantino explained Sunday that "the only two higher temperatures ever recorded on Earth were in Death Valley (1913) and Tunisia (1931), but both records have been in some dispute. At [130oF] today in California, we very well may have officially recorded the world's hottest [temperature]."
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recognized the disputed Tunisia record in a tweet Sunday and said the United Nations agency will also review the temperature reported in Death Valley.
"Everything I've seen so far indicates that is a legitimate observation," Randy Cerveny, who leads the WMO's weather and climate extremes team, told the Washington Post. "I am recommending that the World Meteorological Organization preliminarily accept the observation. In the upcoming weeks, we will, of course, be examining it in detail, along with the U.S. National Climate Extremes Committee, using one of our international evaluation teams."
In a Monday blog post for the American Geophysical Union, meteorologist Dan Satterfield addressed the past records and predictions about what's to come, writing:
Bob Henson, author of some of the best books on weather out there, told me: "It's quite possible the Death Valley high set a new global heat record. The extreme nature of the surrounding weather pattern makes such a reading plausible, so the case deserves a solid review. There are nagging questions about the validity of even hotter reports from Death Valley in 1913 and Tunisia in 1931. What we can say with high confidence is that, if confirmed, this is the highest temperature observed on Earth in almost a century."
What is even more remarkable about the heat in Death Valley today is that it's now mid-August. The sun angle is lower and the days are shorter, making it less likely to see an all-time record high there. I was thinking 128 might be possible when I looked at the pattern last week, but it seems that it managed to go even higher. If you're thinking that the rising greenhouse gases mean this record will not likely last long, I cannot disagree.
Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, agreed in a statement Monday.
"It now appears that we've crossed yet another worrying threshold, setting the apparent hottest temperature ever recorded on this planet since valid records have been kept," Mann said. "Of course, that record too shall fall soon enough if we continue to pollute the atmosphere with carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels."
Author and activist Bill McKibben, who co-founded the advocacy group 350.org, similarly pointed out that even if the high temperature in Death Valley is verified as a new record, it likely won't last.
Death Valley, as the Post detailed Sunday, "is the lowest, driest, and hottest location in the United States. Furnace Creek, where its temperature is measured, sits at 190 feet below sea level in the Mojave Desert of southeastern California. It is notorious for its blistering heat."
Recognizing that the historically hot region may have recorded the highest temperature ever reliably measured on Earth, Peter Kalmus, a climate scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, put the news in the context of the human-caused planetary emergency.
"Please understand: it will get hotter, and hotter, and hotter, so long as we burn fossil fuels. This is irreversible global heating," Kalmus wrote on Twitter, including a hashtag calling for the immediate implementation of a Green New Deal.
Author and on-air commentator Adrienne Lawrence noted that the possible record in California came just before the Trump administration on Monday finalized a controversial drilling plan for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
As Common Dreams reported Monday, after the U.S. Interior Department announced the drilling plan for the refuge, environmental advocacy groups responded with vows to fight against it in court.
This post has been updated with comment from Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University.
From Your Site Articles
The temperature in eastern California's Death Valley, one of the hottest places on the planet, hit a potentially record-breaking 130oF on Sunday, according to a preliminary reading--an event that led alarmed activists and scientists to reiterate calls for urgent global action to combat the climate crisis.
"Please understand: it will get hotter, and hotter, and hotter, so long as we burn fossil fuels. This is irreversible global heating."
--Peter Kalmus, climate scientist
"We are in a climate emergency," meteorologist and writer Eric Holthaus declared on Twitter Sunday, sharing data from the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS).
The NWS confirmed in a statement Sunday that the high temperature--which came in the midst of an ongoing heatwave in the southwestern United States--was recorded at 3:41 pm local time by the agency's automated observation system near the Furnace Creek Visitor Center in Death Valley National Park.
"If verified, this will be the hottest temperature officially verified since July of 1913, also at Death Valley," the NWS added. "As this is an extreme temperature event, the recorded temperature will need to undergo a formal review. A Climate Extremes Committee will be formed to verify the validity of the 130degF reading."
CNN's Jon Passantino explained Sunday that "the only two higher temperatures ever recorded on Earth were in Death Valley (1913) and Tunisia (1931), but both records have been in some dispute. At [130oF] today in California, we very well may have officially recorded the world's hottest [temperature]."
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recognized the disputed Tunisia record in a tweet Sunday and said the United Nations agency will also review the temperature reported in Death Valley.
"Everything I've seen so far indicates that is a legitimate observation," Randy Cerveny, who leads the WMO's weather and climate extremes team, told the Washington Post. "I am recommending that the World Meteorological Organization preliminarily accept the observation. In the upcoming weeks, we will, of course, be examining it in detail, along with the U.S. National Climate Extremes Committee, using one of our international evaluation teams."
In a Monday blog post for the American Geophysical Union, meteorologist Dan Satterfield addressed the past records and predictions about what's to come, writing:
Bob Henson, author of some of the best books on weather out there, told me: "It's quite possible the Death Valley high set a new global heat record. The extreme nature of the surrounding weather pattern makes such a reading plausible, so the case deserves a solid review. There are nagging questions about the validity of even hotter reports from Death Valley in 1913 and Tunisia in 1931. What we can say with high confidence is that, if confirmed, this is the highest temperature observed on Earth in almost a century."
What is even more remarkable about the heat in Death Valley today is that it's now mid-August. The sun angle is lower and the days are shorter, making it less likely to see an all-time record high there. I was thinking 128 might be possible when I looked at the pattern last week, but it seems that it managed to go even higher. If you're thinking that the rising greenhouse gases mean this record will not likely last long, I cannot disagree.
Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, agreed in a statement Monday.
"It now appears that we've crossed yet another worrying threshold, setting the apparent hottest temperature ever recorded on this planet since valid records have been kept," Mann said. "Of course, that record too shall fall soon enough if we continue to pollute the atmosphere with carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels."
Author and activist Bill McKibben, who co-founded the advocacy group 350.org, similarly pointed out that even if the high temperature in Death Valley is verified as a new record, it likely won't last.
Death Valley, as the Post detailed Sunday, "is the lowest, driest, and hottest location in the United States. Furnace Creek, where its temperature is measured, sits at 190 feet below sea level in the Mojave Desert of southeastern California. It is notorious for its blistering heat."
Recognizing that the historically hot region may have recorded the highest temperature ever reliably measured on Earth, Peter Kalmus, a climate scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, put the news in the context of the human-caused planetary emergency.
"Please understand: it will get hotter, and hotter, and hotter, so long as we burn fossil fuels. This is irreversible global heating," Kalmus wrote on Twitter, including a hashtag calling for the immediate implementation of a Green New Deal.
Author and on-air commentator Adrienne Lawrence noted that the possible record in California came just before the Trump administration on Monday finalized a controversial drilling plan for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
As Common Dreams reported Monday, after the U.S. Interior Department announced the drilling plan for the refuge, environmental advocacy groups responded with vows to fight against it in court.
This post has been updated with comment from Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University.
From Your Site Articles
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.