Christopher Burt
The daily high and low temperatures Sept. 1-12, 2021, at Furnace Creek in Death Valley National Park. The 122-degree high on Sept. 7 is denoted by the red arrow.Death Valley, California, established two notable global heat records during a late-summer heat wave in much of the Southwest last week.
On Tuesday, Sept. 7, the Furnace Creek Visitor Center reached 122 degrees (50 degrees Celsius).
This was the latest in a summer season that a 50-degree Celsius temperature has ever been reliably measured on Earth in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres.
Australia is the only country in the Southern Hemisphere to have observed highs of 50 degrees Celsius or hotter. Four Australian sites have seen temperatures this hot, the highest being 50.7 degrees at Oodnadatta on Jan. 2, 1960.
However, no site in Australia has reached 50 degrees Celsius in March, which is a proxy for September in the Southern Hemisphere.
The hottest temperature ever measured during the month of September anywhere on Earth is 126 degrees (52.2 degrees Celsius) at Mecca, California, on Sept. 1, 1950.
A Torridly Hot September Morning Low
Just two days later on Sept. 9, the daily low temperature at the new National Weather Service observing site near Badwater Basin in Death Valley was 102 degrees (38.9 degrees Celsius). This was the hottest daily low temperature ever recorded on Earth during September.
The previous September world record hottest low – 100 degrees – was also observed at Death Valley (Furnace Creek site) on Sept. 3 and 4, 2007.
The morning low on Sept. 9 at the Furnace Creek site was 98 degrees.
The new Badwater observation site became operational in mid-August and, so far, appears to be providing accurate measurements in line with the other sites in the valley.
The new NWS observing station at Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park, with the rocky cliffs above the site seen in the background.High temperatures have been consistently comparable to the Furnace Creek site, located 18 miles north of Badwater.
However, low temperatures have run about 2 to 3 degrees warmer on average than at the Furnace Creek site. This is because Furnace Creek is located in an oasis and cooler air pools around the site at night.
The Badwater site, on the other hand, is on a slight rise at the far eastern edge of the valley. Warmth from the rocky cliffs above the site, seen in the photo above, keep nighttime temperatures warmer.
Badwater is the lowest elevation in the United States, 282 feet below sea level.
In July 2021 and August 2020, Furnace Creek soared to 130 degrees, the site's hottest temperatures recorded since 1913.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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