Where’s the hottest place on Earth?

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Last Updated on 18th August 2020

And that’s the “correctly” recorded hottest place on Earth according to the ‘WMO World Archive of Weather and Climate Extremes’. So let’s get the confusion out of the way to start with!

Where’s the hottest plane on Earth?

The hottest official recorded temperature is now credited to ‘Death Valley’ in the USA and not ‘Tripoli in Libya’. More specifically ‘Greenland Ranch, near Furnace Creek in Death Valley, California’ which hit 56.7°C (134°F) on July 13, 1913. So now not the 58°C (136.4°F) that was recorded at ‘El Azizia (approximately 40 km south-southwest of Tripoli) Libya’ on 13 September 1922. Check out the World Meteorological Organization for more “techie” information.

Also the hottest place on Earth is a normal place where you can actually visit. The centre of an erupting volcano is undoubtedly hotter but not somewhere where you can stand.

[EDIT] Since this article was originally posted back in 2015, a year later in 2016, the 1913 record was disputed too! However on Sunday 15th August 2020 Furnace Creek reached 54.4°C (130°F). Maybe everybody will be happy with this one!

WMO will verify the temperature of 130°F (54.4C) reported at Death Valley, California, on Sunday. This would be the hottest global temperature officially recorded since 1931. pic.twitter.com/AOaWHKWVKJ

— World Meteorological Organization (@WMO) August 17, 2020

But at school they told me it was Libya?

So when our tour guide Alex had mentioned where we were heading that day – the “hottest place in the world … Death Valley” I too recounted my GCSE geography lessons that taught me that it was actually somewhere in Libya that held that title! We were too remote for our bus’s Wi-Fi to connect to Wikipedia so it was only once we’d been handed copies of the local ‘Death Valley National Park Visitor Guide’ we could understand why the record had been changed.

So why the contention? Well in February 2011, a WMO Commission of Climatology (CCl) special international panel of meteorological experts began conducting an investigation into the Libyan record and identified five major concerns with it:

1. Potential problems with the type of thermometer which had been used
2. The record temperature was taken by a potentially inexperienced observer just two days into his new role
3. Unlikely conditions for such high temperatures at the observation site (it was on a hill and near the coast)
4. Poor correspondence to other weather stations nearby
5. No subsequently high temperature values ever recorded at the site.

They therefore concluded in January 2012 that Death Valley now had the record and invalidated the 90-year-old Libyan record for the world’s highest temperature.

So the hottest place on Earth is now Furnace Creek

The old Greenland Ranch weather station is no more but the original location lies on the eastern side of the road opposite the Furnace Creek Resort if you ever wanted to try to find the exact location yourself! Although it too was repositioned 2 or 3 times over the years due to measuring improvements and highway building and nobody at the visitor centre knew its exact original location either!

The current weather station is at the Furnace Creek Visitor Centre 700-800m up the road and moved there on April 1st 1961 but I’m guessing it would have been about 136.4°F degrees here too – and you never know – maybe even hotter! In fact on June 30th 2013 it reached 129°F degrees (54 °C) but that’s as close as it’s ever got to the 1913 record!

But why is it so warm there?

Death Valley lies at 36°N so even at the height of summer it never has the sun directly overhead (23.5°N). However it’s the depth and shape that instead influences its high summer temperatures. The valley itself is 86m below sea level and is walled by steep mountain ranges. Sunlight is allowed to heat the sparsely covered desert surface and the radiated heat becomes trapped within the valley. Even the pockets of sinking, recycled air are only marginally cooler than the surrounding hot air. As they descend they are compressed and heated up even more by the low elevation air pressure.

So that’s the geography lesson over and one with. Either way when we were there it was a mere 40°C (104°F) according to the digital thermometer at the visitor centre. That was plenty warm enough for me! 🙂

So now you know where the hottest place on Earth is are you tempted to visit? 🙂 Also check out the top 5 hottest countries in the world post by Sophie’s Suitcase.

If you fancy going somewhere a bit chillier then check out Ketan’s guest post on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard.

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