See our latest: World Record Temp of 135 in Death Valley Won't Count?
We're officially only one week into the summer of 2013, and already there's talk of an all-time, global, world-record high temperature being recorded anew right here in Southern California.
In fact we are already the home of the standing world-record high: Death Valley saw 134 in 1913. Last year that event was certified as the tops. Now a SoCal meteorologist is packing his thermometer and heading back to that hell hole to see if this weekend's blazing weather can set a new benchmark:
TheWeatherSpace.com's publisher and senior meteorologist, Kevin Martin, is freelancing it to the bowels of Death Valley this weekend in anticipation of a new high, he announced this week.
He's taking his gear and two other people, including his 63-year-old mother, in his mom's late model, air-conditioned-equipped Honda to Badwater Basin.
Martin thinks Badwater will be hotter than the site of the previous record, Furnace Creek, because Badwater is a little lower in elevation.
Chris Stachelski of the National Weather Service in Las Vegas agrees, saying Badwater could be 2 to 3 degrees hotter, especially on Sunday, which is expected to be the hottest day.
He explained that high pressure moving over Nevada was dominating our weather, pushing heat down toward lower elevations and even toward the coast.
A little hot for this early in summer? You betcha. Stachelski tells the Weekly:
It's unusual for late June. It would be unusual even for late July.
But … world record? Stachelski thinks the area will fall a few degrees short. He tells the Weekly:
We're not expecting it to get that hot.
Official high at #DeathValley today so far is 125 degrees. This ties the daily record for 6/28 last set in 1994. #cawx
— NWS Las Vegas (@NWSVegas) June 28, 2013
Furnace Creek is expected to see 128 on Saturday and 129 on Sunday, according to the NWS. Badwater Basin could see those 2 or 3 extra degrees, but that still wouldn't do it.
And … Stachelski says only National Weather Service instruments, which are installed at a ranger station at Furnace Creek, would count toward a world record.
Martin seems undaunted.
[H/T LA Observed and Banning-Beaumont Patch].
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