The planet’s hottest recorded temperature ever was 134 F (56.67 C) in July 1913 at Furnace Creek, according to the World Meteorological Organization, the body recognized as keeper of world records.Īnd in Nevada, also on July 16, Las Vegas briefly reached 116 degrees (46.6 degrees Celsius) to tie the record for that date set in 1998. In California, Death Valley, long considered the hottest place on Earth, flirted in July with some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded, reaching 125.6 degrees Fahrenheit (52.5 Celsius) on July 16 at the aptly named Furnace Creek. Phoenix also sweated through a record 16 consecutive days when overnight lows didn’t dip below 90 degrees (32.2 degrees Celsius), making it hard for people to cool off after the sun went down. The Phoenix, AZ area has had 17 reports of on-the-ground hail by trained spotters, and has been under severe weather warnings 58 times during the past 12 months. “But today it was about 85 degrees, more like Wisconsin.” The images were produced from the VNP21IMG Land Surface Temperature product, which is available at NASA’s Land, Atmosphere Near-real-time Capability for EOS ( LANCE).“It has been REALLY hot here!” said Jeffrey Sharpe, of Kenosha, Wisconsin, who was in town for a long weekend that on Monday included watching his son’s two poodles frolic in a grassy dog park. Short for Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership, the spacecraft is one of several in the Joint Polar Satellite System. VIIRS is one of five instruments aboard the NOAA-NASA Suomi NPP satellite. The Verde River and other nearby waterways also were significantly cooler. ![]() ![]() The hot surfaces in and around the city stand in contrast to nearby irrigated surfaces such as agricultural fields, golf courses, and parks, which fell as low as 68 degrees Fahrenheit (18.9 degrees Celsius) during the night. “That heat gets released slowly at night, making air temperatures much warmer during the nighttime in dense urban areas, creating the classic urban heat island effect.” “Dark asphalt and concrete have a high heat capacity, so most of the heat they absorb during the day goes into storage below the ground,” Hulley said. In the images, the mountains near Phoenix are also notably hot due to their angle to the Sun and greater soil exposure from lack of vegetation. Streets – seen in these maps as a grid pattern – are often the hottest part of the built environment due to dark asphalt paving that absorbs more sunlight than lighter-colored surfaces asphalt absorbs up to 95% of solar radiation. Land-surface temperatures in cities are usually warmer than in rural and undeveloped areas because of human activities and the materials used for building. By those measurements, the city experienced the hottest month on record in July, including a record 31 consecutive days in which the temperature exceeded 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius). The airport is also where Phoenix takes its official air temperature. ![]() Due to their high heat capacity, these surfaces didn’t fully cool overnight before the onset of the next day’s heat, said Glynn Hulley, the JPL climate scientist who produced the series.Īt the center of the images is Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport, where VIIRS measured the hottest land-surface temperature within the city. ![]() From July 1 to July 19, the built surfaces in the maps grew progressively hotter, likely the combined effect of the heat wave intensifying and the cumulative heating of those human-made structures.
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