In this new study, the researchers used an alternative method.
This design allows air to flow through but avoids direct sunlight that may skew the results.
Typically, the temperature is gauged using a Stevenson screen, a ventilated white-painted box that’s lifted a few feet off the ground. Image credit: TravelNerd/Īir temperatures are recorded using over 10,000 weather stations across the world maintained by the WMO. Sonoran Desert in Baja California Norte, Mexico. The biggest swing of temperature was found in the Qaidam Basin in China where the land surface temperature was found to have fluctuated by 81.8☌ (147.3☏) in a single day, from -23.7☌ (-10.7☏) to 58.1☌ (136.6☏). In a new study published in Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, scientists in the US used satellite data to show that the Lut Desert in Iran and the Sonoran Desert in Mexico have seen baking land surface temperatures of 80.8☌ (177.4☏) in recent decades.Ī surface temperature of -110.9☌ (-167.62☏) in Antarctica was recorded as the lowest temperature recorded in the study, approximately 20☌ lower than what was reported by the WMO, which has the lowest temperature as -89.2☌ (-128.56 ☏). However, if we look at land surface temperature then two other locations are miles ahead of Death Valley. While some dispute the validity of the temperature recording (and even if they do, the next record-breaker is still Furnace Creek just nine days earlier), that’s the official hottest temperature according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Furnace Creek in California’s Death Valley holds the official record for the highest air temperature on the planet, clocking a scorching 56.7☌ (134.1☏) on July 10, 1913.