Hottest place on Earth

Why is the hottest place on Earth right here in California?

Andrew Chamings

The small town that sits just over the California border from Las Vegas, a little beyond Death Valley junction, lies at almost 200 feet below sea level, houses about 100 residents and is the hottest place on the planet. 

On July 10, 1913, the temperature at Furnace Creek was recorded at 134 degrees, the highest temperature on Earth in recorded history. And while some experts have disputed the accuracy of that measurement, recent reliable data shows that Death Valley is consistently the hottest place in the world.

Only two months ago, as a "heat dome" covered much of the Western U.S., temperatures hit 130 in the valley. In 2020, it reached 129.9 degrees. That's hotter than the temperature to which Martha Stewart recommends cooking a medium-rare hamburger. 

Those broiling highs aren't outliers: In 2001, the valley recorded 154 consecutive days with a maximum temperature over 100.

But why is a valley just 250 miles from the cool California coast the cauldron of the world? Why is it hotter there than, say, the Sahara, Dubai or Ethiopia?

"All those places you mentioned are deserts. If you don't have a lot of cloud cover, and not a lot of plant cover, the sun can shoot off the Earth," Abby Wines, spokesperson for Death Valley National Park, told SFGATE. "What's different about Death Valley is how deep it is, how low in elevation it is surrounded by steep mountains."

The contrast in elevation between the valley and surrounding mountains is stark. The lowest point in North America, at the site of a long-since evaporated lake, are the salt flats of Badwater Basin a few miles south of Furnace Creek. The highly salinated sand there sits at 282 feet below sea level, yet only 80 miles northwest, Mount Whitney stands 14,505 feet tall, the highest point in the contiguous United States.

The mountains — the Amargosa Range on the east, Panamint Range on the west, the Grapevine Mountains to the north and Owlshead Mountains to the south — surround Death Valley and trap its broiling air. 

"Everyone knows warm air rises. In normal places that warm air rises and just blows away, whereas here it gets trapped by the mountains on either side of Death Valley and then recirculates. It's like a convection oven," Wines says. "That same landscape that makes it such a dramatic place to visit is also what gives it such an extreme climate."

That heat formed on the sparsely planted desert surface just can't escape the valley's depths, leading to the uniquely super-heated air blowing through the 140-mile-long, 10-mile-wide stretch.

Wines has lived and worked in the valley for the park service for 16 years. Working manual labor is perilous in temperatures that regularly rise above 120 degrees, and Wines tells me that employees are only allowed to work for 10 minutes outside at that heat before spending 50 minutes in the shade or indoors. "You can't work straight through it, no one can," she said.

Death Valley may seem to be an unlikely place to decide to call home, and fewer than 600 people live there today. But the region has long been inhabited by people maybe drawn to a life away from the busy world, or else seeking a fortune. Native American people are known to have inhabited the area as early as 9,000 years ago, but it was the Californian Gold Rush that brought white settlers to the valley. In 1849, the name Death Valley was given to the land between the mountains after a group of European speculators looking for a shortcut to the Sierra lost a member to the heat.

The discovery of borax on the ancient lakebed drew people to the baked terrain in the early 1900s, though word of its inhospitableness was spreading. A 1904 Pomona newspaper article celebrating the newly completed Salt Lake Railroad titled "Desolate Horrors of Death Valley," described the valley as a "little known and horrible corner of the union," and "all that is melancholy, grim and withered in the desert." 

Today, most visitors describe the heat with a kitchen analogy. "It may sound cliche, but it feels a bit like hot air hitting your face when you open an oven," said Sam Argier, a meteorologist for FOX 5 Vegas. Argier explained why Death Valley is a different meteorological beast than the Bay Area.

"Along the West Coast of the United States, the Pacific Ocean acts like a giant air conditioner. The Bay Area is a perfect example ... just look at the temperature contrast between San Francisco and a city like Walnut Creek most afternoons," Argier said. "The temperature warms up as you move inland with hills and mountains limiting the cooling influence of the ocean. In the case of Death Valley, there are three significant mountain ranges that not only limit cooler air coming in but also rainfall from storms that roll in off the Pacific."

As Argier pointed out, the extreme heat is combined with extreme dryness. Death Valley has an average rainfall of 2 inches a year, that's an inch less than the Sahara. This is due to the mountains taking all the moisture from storms heading in land from the ocean in the winter. 

The NPS explains that by the time the clouds reach the mountain's east side, they no longer have as much available moisture, creating a dry "rainshadow." The four mountain ranges between the Pacific and Death Valley each add to an increasingly drier rainshadow effect. Some years see just millimeters of precipitation. In 1929 and 1953, zero rainfall was recorded through the entire year. 

"With the lack of rainfall, you're left with a desert lacking much vegetation. That lack of vegetation combined with dry desert air and a low elevation gives it the perfect combination for very high temperatures in the summertime," Argier says. 

As the valley's name suggests, that heat can have fatal consequences. Only last week, a San Francisco man died hiking in the heat on the Golden Canyon Trail in the park, the second heat-related fatality there this year. It's a worrying trend that some fear is only getting worse as conditions get more extreme. 

I asked Wines whether climate change feels real in the valley. 

"Nine of the park's 10 hottest years in history have happened in the last 15 years, since I've lived here," she said. "This year has been unbearable." Wines told me that while she normally prefers to use a swamp cooler —  which cools the dry air by passing it over water-saturated pads, causing the water to evaporate into it — in place of expensive air conditioning, that hasn't been an option in this year's unusually hot and humid heat. 

Argier says that visitors need to take the heat seriously. "Hydration is so important when surviving in this very hot weather. Limiting alcohol and drinking plenty of water is key. Light-colored clothing also helps you stay cooler. Also, don't overexert yourself in this type of weather," he says. "The desert heat can sneak up on you quickly."