Death Valley may have broken the record for the hottest temperature ever set

If you think it’s hot in the Okanagan or Kamloops, just think what it would be like if it was about 20 degrees warmer.

Furnace Creek, California, in the depths of Death Valley, recorded a temperature of 54.4 C yesterday, Aug. 16.

Efforts are underway to verify that recording and to see if it is, in fact, the world’s hottest temperature.

The World Meteorological Organization Archives reports that Furnace Creek recorded a temperature of 56.7C on July 10, 1913 but some weather historians have questioned the accuracy of that recording.

Last year the meteorological organization verified the recording of two 54C temperatures in Mitribah, Kuwait, on July 21, 2016 and in Turbat, Pakistan, on May 28, 2017.

Yesterday it got to 36 C in Kelowna and 37.9 C in Kamloops.


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Rob Munro

Rob Munro has a long history in journalism after starting an underground newspaper in Whitehorse called the Yukon Howl in 1980. He spent five years at the 100 Mile Free Press, starting in the darkroom, moving on to sports and news reporting before becoming the advertising manager. He came to Kelowna in 1989 as a reporter for the Kelowna Daily Courier, and spent the 1990s mostly covering city hall. For most of the past 20 years he worked full time for the union representing newspaper workers throughout B.C. He’s returned to his true love of being a reporter with a special focus on civic politics

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