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I thought Death Valley's record high was 134F (56.7C).
Christopher Burt, weather historian, thinks this record is flawed.
He believes the highest accurate temperature recorded in Furnace Creek, Death Valley occurred in 2013 and is tied with Kuwait's recent accomplishment. 129.2, or something like that.
I was just reading about it the other day on the Weather Underground.
I used to live there. I can answer the question "What's it like?". It's worse than hell. It never, EVER cools down between May and October. It's like a hot version of the South Pole. Monotonous heat, day and night, for at least five months straight. No cold fronts or thunderstorms. The most significant cooling one can expect is a dust storm bringing highs down from 125 to 115 degrees F. Nights are always hot, but not just hot like a sultry Washington D.C night. No, I mean, HOT, as in step out at 4 am and feel the hairs on your bare skin being singed off by the hot blowing wind (they are not really being singed off but it feels like it).
In 1999, we experienced a partial solar eclipse one August afternoon (80% totality). It plunged the high down all right - from 122 F to 116 F.
You can only take a shower at dawn because otherwise the cold water is too hot. By dawn, it cools off into the 100-105 range. Most people have a small tank of water indoors, which serves as a reservoir of precious cold water for a quick shower.
The sea surface temperature runs in the mid-90s to low 100s in August and September. You can easily get heat exhaustion and drown if you're dumb enough to go swimming in summer.
On the flip side, the first sign of "fall", when night temperatures fall into the 80s and 70s, feels positively delightful.
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