As the Western U.S. continues to suffer through an historic heat wave, the temperature in Death Valley, California, reached a scorching 130 degrees on Sunday afternoon (August 16th), among the top three highest ever measured around the world and possibly the highest ever recorded in the month of August.
Death Valley holds the record for the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth, 134 degrees, on July 10th, 1913. However, that measurement is in doubt, as is the only other higher reading since 1873, 131 degrees in Kebili, Tunisia, on July 7th, 1931, according to the Washington Post. Because of that, some experts consider the record to be 129 degrees, recorded in Death Valley on June 30th, 2013, and in Kuwait and Pakistan in 2016 and 2017, respectively. If that’s correct, yesterday’s temperature would have set a new record.
