Death Valley heat record comes under fire
By Henry Brean, Las Vegas Review-Journal
A new analysis of a 103-year-old weather observation is throwing cold water on Death Valley National Park’s claim to the world record for heat.
According to the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization, the official keeper and verifier of global climate extremes, the highest air temperature recorded anywhere in the world is 134 degrees at Death Valley’s Greenland Ranch on July 10, 1913.
But California climatologist and storm chaser William T. Reid believes the record is bogus, and he’s got decades of exhaustive research to back him up.
“It’s essentially not possible from a meteorological perspective,” Reid said.