1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:09,799 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is production of iHeartRadio. Hello 2 00:00:10,080 --> 00:00:13,880 Speaker 1: and welcome to This Day in History Class, a show 3 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:17,800 Speaker 1: for those interested in the highs and lows of everyday history. 4 00:00:18,760 --> 00:00:22,200 Speaker 1: I'm Gay Blue Sier, and today we're talking about the 5 00:00:22,239 --> 00:00:35,000 Speaker 1: hottest day in the hottest place on Earth. The day 6 00:00:35,360 --> 00:00:40,400 Speaker 1: was July tenth, nineteen thirteen. A weather observer in Death 7 00:00:40,479 --> 00:00:44,040 Speaker 1: Valley measured a record high temperature of one hundred and 8 00:00:44,200 --> 00:00:49,640 Speaker 1: thirty four degrees fahrenheit or fifty six point six degrees celsius. 9 00:00:50,880 --> 00:00:54,240 Speaker 1: More than a century later, that's still the highest air 10 00:00:54,360 --> 00:00:58,640 Speaker 1: temperature ever reliably recorded on the planet. The reading was 11 00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:01,600 Speaker 1: taken during an intent whear stretch of hot weather that 12 00:01:01,760 --> 00:01:05,920 Speaker 1: lasted from July fifth through the fourteenth. It was recorded 13 00:01:05,959 --> 00:01:10,399 Speaker 1: by Oscar Denton, the caretaker of Greenland Ranch now known 14 00:01:10,440 --> 00:01:14,319 Speaker 1: as Furnace Creek. According to Denton, he went out to 15 00:01:14,360 --> 00:01:17,759 Speaker 1: read the thermometer with a wet Turkish towel wrapped around 16 00:01:17,760 --> 00:01:20,240 Speaker 1: his head, and although it only took him a minute 17 00:01:20,240 --> 00:01:23,360 Speaker 1: to record the temperature, the towel was fully dry by 18 00:01:23,360 --> 00:01:26,720 Speaker 1: the time he got back inside. In a strange twist, 19 00:01:26,959 --> 00:01:31,240 Speaker 1: the worldwide high temperature wasn't the only extreme weather event 20 00:01:31,319 --> 00:01:35,800 Speaker 1: in Death Valley that year. On January eighth, nineteen thirteen, 21 00:01:36,160 --> 00:01:40,199 Speaker 1: the temperature dropped to fifteen degrees fahrenheit at the Greenland Ranch, 22 00:01:40,600 --> 00:01:44,440 Speaker 1: the lowest ever recorded there. That means it was both 23 00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:48,200 Speaker 1: the hottest and the coldest year in Death Valley to date. 24 00:01:49,040 --> 00:01:52,560 Speaker 1: Death Valley is located in the northern Mojave Desert of 25 00:01:52,600 --> 00:01:56,320 Speaker 1: southeast California. It was given its ominous name by a 26 00:01:56,360 --> 00:01:58,880 Speaker 1: group of pioneers who had set out for the gold 27 00:01:58,920 --> 00:02:03,200 Speaker 1: fields of California during the winter of eighteen forty nine. 28 00:02:03,240 --> 00:02:06,880 Speaker 1: After taking a supposed shortcut across the desert, the group 29 00:02:06,920 --> 00:02:09,840 Speaker 1: got hopelessly lost in the valley and didn't make it 30 00:02:09,880 --> 00:02:14,280 Speaker 1: out again until several grueling months later. Only one man 31 00:02:14,360 --> 00:02:16,680 Speaker 1: is said to have died during their long wait to 32 00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:19,400 Speaker 1: be rescued, but as the party climbed out of the 33 00:02:19,480 --> 00:02:24,640 Speaker 1: valley over the Panamin Mountains, one person looked back and said, goodbye, 34 00:02:24,880 --> 00:02:28,640 Speaker 1: Death Valley, and it's been called that ever since. The 35 00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:32,400 Speaker 1: lost forty nine ers didn't experience the extreme heat of 36 00:02:32,520 --> 00:02:35,520 Speaker 1: summer and Death Valley, and if they had, there's a 37 00:02:35,560 --> 00:02:38,040 Speaker 1: good chance none of them would have survived long enough 38 00:02:38,080 --> 00:02:41,880 Speaker 1: to name it. Temperatures in the Valley normally reach or 39 00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:45,919 Speaker 1: exceed one hundred degrees fahrenheit from mid May all the 40 00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:50,800 Speaker 1: way until early October. Summer nights don't provide much relief either, 41 00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:54,720 Speaker 1: as overnight temperatures usually only dip into the mid eighties 42 00:02:54,760 --> 00:02:59,160 Speaker 1: to mid nineties. The region's sweltering heat is largely due 43 00:02:59,200 --> 00:03:02,520 Speaker 1: to the depth and shape of the valley itself. Death 44 00:03:02,639 --> 00:03:06,160 Speaker 1: Valley is a long, narrow basin that descends two hundred 45 00:03:06,200 --> 00:03:09,240 Speaker 1: and eighty two feet below sea level, making it the 46 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:14,040 Speaker 1: lowest point on the continent. The valley's low elevation alone 47 00:03:14,160 --> 00:03:17,480 Speaker 1: makes it prone to high temperatures, but it's also surrounded 48 00:03:17,520 --> 00:03:22,120 Speaker 1: by four steep mountain ranges. All the moist air moving 49 00:03:22,160 --> 00:03:25,320 Speaker 1: eastward from the Pacific Ocean has to pass over those 50 00:03:25,400 --> 00:03:28,560 Speaker 1: high mountains, and by the time it reaches Death Valley, 51 00:03:28,880 --> 00:03:31,600 Speaker 1: there isn't much moisture left in the air to fall 52 00:03:31,720 --> 00:03:36,520 Speaker 1: as precipitation. As a result, Death Valley is an extremely 53 00:03:36,680 --> 00:03:40,560 Speaker 1: dry desert, typically garnering less than two inches of rainfall 54 00:03:40,680 --> 00:03:45,000 Speaker 1: each year, far less than most other deserts. The lack 55 00:03:45,040 --> 00:03:47,920 Speaker 1: of rain also means the valley doesn't have much in 56 00:03:47,960 --> 00:03:51,680 Speaker 1: the way of vegetation, and without plants, or rain clouds 57 00:03:51,680 --> 00:03:54,640 Speaker 1: to provide shade. There is nothing to stop the sunlight 58 00:03:54,760 --> 00:03:58,960 Speaker 1: from directly heating the desert's surface. All that excess heat 59 00:03:59,240 --> 00:04:02,760 Speaker 1: is then radius back from the rocks and soil, only 60 00:04:02,840 --> 00:04:05,400 Speaker 1: to get trapped by the narrow width of the valley, 61 00:04:05,720 --> 00:04:09,760 Speaker 1: thus heating things up even more. The combination of those 62 00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:12,880 Speaker 1: factors has earned Death Valley the title of the hottest 63 00:04:12,920 --> 00:04:15,920 Speaker 1: place on Earth, and in the summer of nineteen thirteen, 64 00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:19,559 Speaker 1: it more than lived up to that reputation. The heat 65 00:04:19,600 --> 00:04:23,239 Speaker 1: wave began on July fifth, and for the next ten days, 66 00:04:23,440 --> 00:04:26,400 Speaker 1: the high temperature and Death Valley reached one hundred and 67 00:04:26,480 --> 00:04:29,960 Speaker 1: twenty five degrees or more. The hottest days were from 68 00:04:30,040 --> 00:04:33,160 Speaker 1: July ninth to the thirteenth, when the high reached at 69 00:04:33,240 --> 00:04:37,120 Speaker 1: least one hundred and twenty nine degrees each day. The 70 00:04:37,160 --> 00:04:40,880 Speaker 1: record setting peak came on July tenth, when the temperature 71 00:04:40,960 --> 00:04:44,960 Speaker 1: spiked to a blistering one hundred and thirty four degrees fahrenheit. 72 00:04:45,720 --> 00:04:48,719 Speaker 1: It's hard to convey exactly how hot it must have 73 00:04:48,760 --> 00:04:51,760 Speaker 1: felt that day, but according to Oscar Denton, the man 74 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:55,440 Speaker 1: who recorded the temperature, he observed birds baking to death 75 00:04:55,520 --> 00:04:58,960 Speaker 1: in mid air, or as he put it quote, swallows 76 00:04:59,080 --> 00:05:02,760 Speaker 1: in full flight fell to the Earth dead. As for 77 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:05,880 Speaker 1: the reliability of Denton's account, he may have put a 78 00:05:05,880 --> 00:05:08,479 Speaker 1: colorful spin on the effects of the heat, but the 79 00:05:08,480 --> 00:05:12,400 Speaker 1: temperature reading he took is believed to be accurate. The 80 00:05:12,440 --> 00:05:15,560 Speaker 1: weather station at the Greenland Ranch had been established by 81 00:05:15,600 --> 00:05:18,640 Speaker 1: the U. S Weather Bureau in nineteen eleven. It was 82 00:05:18,680 --> 00:05:21,920 Speaker 1: operated in cooperation with the company that ran the ranch, 83 00:05:22,240 --> 00:05:25,040 Speaker 1: and the Bureau had full confidence in the instruments it 84 00:05:25,160 --> 00:05:29,719 Speaker 1: housed on site. After reviewing Denton's report, the US Weather 85 00:05:29,760 --> 00:05:33,880 Speaker 1: Bureau confirmed the reading, calling it quote the highest natural 86 00:05:33,920 --> 00:05:37,440 Speaker 1: air temperature ever recorded on the Earth's surface by means 87 00:05:37,480 --> 00:05:41,760 Speaker 1: of a tested standard thermometer exposed in a standard ventilated 88 00:05:41,880 --> 00:05:46,080 Speaker 1: instrument shelter. In the one hundred and ten years since 89 00:05:46,120 --> 00:05:49,799 Speaker 1: that reading was taken, our planet has grown steadily warmer. 90 00:05:50,360 --> 00:05:53,400 Speaker 1: In fact, on July fourth, twenty twenty three, the Earth 91 00:05:53,480 --> 00:05:57,120 Speaker 1: warmed to the highest average global temperature on record, just 92 00:05:57,200 --> 00:06:02,640 Speaker 1: under sixty three degrees fahrenheit or roughly seventeen degrees celsius. Yet, 93 00:06:02,640 --> 00:06:06,120 Speaker 1: despite that warming climate, the high temperature record set in 94 00:06:06,240 --> 00:06:10,479 Speaker 1: nineteen thirteen still stands at the time of recording. In 95 00:06:10,520 --> 00:06:14,200 Speaker 1: a strange twist, though, the record was considered broken for 96 00:06:14,279 --> 00:06:18,480 Speaker 1: a full nine decades. That's because in nineteen twenty two, 97 00:06:18,839 --> 00:06:22,120 Speaker 1: a temperature of one hundred and thirty six degrees fahrenheit 98 00:06:22,320 --> 00:06:26,040 Speaker 1: was recorded in Libya, besting the Death Value record by 99 00:06:26,040 --> 00:06:31,880 Speaker 1: a full two degrees. The World Meteorological Organization or WMO 100 00:06:31,960 --> 00:06:35,000 Speaker 1: quickly certified the new record, and it stood as the 101 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:39,040 Speaker 1: official world's highest temperature all the way until twenty twelve. 102 00:06:39,839 --> 00:06:43,840 Speaker 1: That's when new evidence surfaced suggesting the Libya record had 103 00:06:43,880 --> 00:06:47,000 Speaker 1: been based on a reading from a faulty thermometer and 104 00:06:47,080 --> 00:06:50,919 Speaker 1: read by an untrained observer. In light of that, the 105 00:06:51,120 --> 00:06:55,240 Speaker 1: WMO officially re certified the one hundred and thirty four 106 00:06:55,320 --> 00:06:59,279 Speaker 1: degree reading as the all time highest air temperature recorded 107 00:06:59,320 --> 00:07:04,000 Speaker 1: on Earth. It's worth noting that some climatologists claim the 108 00:07:04,080 --> 00:07:09,159 Speaker 1: Death Valley reading is likely bogus as well. However, proving 109 00:07:09,240 --> 00:07:13,800 Speaker 1: that would require an official wm investigation, and so far 110 00:07:14,120 --> 00:07:17,600 Speaker 1: there's not enough interest or evidence to justify the effort. 111 00:07:18,600 --> 00:07:21,560 Speaker 1: The much more likely outcome is that a new all 112 00:07:21,720 --> 00:07:25,480 Speaker 1: time record will finally dethrone the one set and Death Valley, 113 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:29,360 Speaker 1: and with the average global temperature still set to climb, 114 00:07:29,640 --> 00:07:32,640 Speaker 1: there's a good chance the nineteen thirteen record will be 115 00:07:32,680 --> 00:07:40,080 Speaker 1: broken sooner rather than later. I'm Gabe Lucier and hopefully 116 00:07:40,320 --> 00:07:43,360 Speaker 1: you now know a little more about history today than 117 00:07:43,400 --> 00:07:46,360 Speaker 1: you did yesterday. If you have a second and you're 118 00:07:46,400 --> 00:07:50,640 Speaker 1: so inclined, consider following us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram 119 00:07:50,680 --> 00:07:55,040 Speaker 1: at TDI HC Show. And if you have any feedback 120 00:07:55,160 --> 00:07:57,760 Speaker 1: or weather predictions you'd like to share, you can send 121 00:07:57,800 --> 00:08:01,320 Speaker 1: them my way by writing to This Day at iHeartMedia 122 00:08:01,360 --> 00:08:05,040 Speaker 1: dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays and Ben Hackett for 123 00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:07,960 Speaker 1: producing the show, and thanks to you for listening. I'll 124 00:08:07,960 --> 00:08:11,240 Speaker 1: see you back here again tomorrow for another day in 125 00:08:11,440 --> 00:08:12,520 Speaker 1: History class.