California’s Death Valley sizzles as brutal heat wave continues

Temperatures at or above 130 F (54.44 C) have only been recorded on Earth a handful of times, mostly in Death Valley. Short-term: This particular weekend is being driven by a very very strong upper-level ridge of high pressure over the Western U.S.”Furnace Creek is an unincorporated community within Death Valley National Park. Death Valley dominates global heat records. There are other places similar to Death Valley that may be as hot, such as Iran’s Lut Desert, but like Death Valley are uninhabited so no one measures there, Burt said. The difference was someone decided to put an official weather station in Death Valley in 1911, he said.