Skip in Skip x Embed x Share CLOSE According to the National Weather Service, the average temperature for Death Valley in July was a blistering 107.4 degrees. Video provided by Newsy Newslook 
 
 A visitor walks along on the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes at Death Valley National Park on Tuesday, March 22, 2016 in Death Valley, Calif. (Photo: Marilyn Chung, The Desert Sun) 
 
 Hell on Earth: With an average temperature of 107.39 degrees in July, Death Valley set the record for hottest month at a single location in U.S. history. 
 
 Keep in mind that that number is an average of all the high and low temperatures. The average daily high temperature was an unbearable 119.6 degrees. 
 
 “It should be noted that this is the hottest average monthly temperature ever measured in the U.S. or, for that matter, anywhere in the Western Hemisphere,” Weather Underground weather historian Christopher Burt told the Capital Weather Gang. 
 
 It was not a world record, however: Climatologist Brian Brettschneider said the world record warm month was in August 2015, when King Khaled, Saudi Arabia, measured an average temperature of 107.44 degrees. 
 
 The avg monthly temp for Death Valley in July was 107.4. This breaks the previous record of 107.2 set in 1917. Also the hottest month ever. — NWS Las Vegas (@NWSVegas) August 2, 2017 
 
 And nights were no bargain in Death Valley last month: The temperature didn't drop below 89 degrees the entire month of July, the National Weather Service said. Three days, the overnight low temperature was over 100 degrees. 
 
 July's hottest day was the 7th, when Death Valley hit 127 degrees. It was also 127 on two June days. 
 
 Death Valley is a national park with no permanent residents except for a few park service staff and rangers. It is the hottest, driest and lowest of all U.S. national parks. 
 
 Several other cities set record warm months in the West, as did Miami, the weather service said. 
 
 We broke a record this July--the hottest month ever for Death Valley! 🔥🌡️ https://t.co/vBDMd2q1j7 — Death Valley NP (@DeathValleyNPS) August 2, 2017 
 
 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2wq9Wrp ||||| GFS weather model analysis of maximum temperatures in the Middle East Thursday afternoon. (WeatherBell.com) 
 
 (This post, originally posted on June 29, was updated on July 3.) 
 
 A city in southwest Iran posted the country’s hottest temperature ever recorded Thursday afternoon, and came very close to the world record for the most extreme high temperature. 
 
 Etienne Kapikian, a forecaster at French meteorological agency MeteoFrance, posted to Twitter that the city of Ahvaz soared to “53.7°C” (128.7 degrees Fahrenheit). Kapikian said the temperature is a “new absolute national record of reliable Iranian heat” and that it was the hottest temperature ever recorded in June over mainland Asia. Iran’s previous hottest temperature was 127.4. 
 
 This reading, if verified, fell just short of the hottest temperature ever measured on Earth in modern times of 129.2 degrees (54.0 Celsius). 
 
 Christopher Burt, a weather historian for Weather Underground, has exhaustively analyzed world temperature extremes and determined the 129.2 degree readings posted in Mitribah, Kuwait on July 21, 2016, and Death Valley, Calif., on June 30, 2013, are the hottest credible temperature measurements that exist in modern records. 
 
 Officially, Death Valley set the record for the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth on July 10, 1913, soaring to 134 degrees (57 Celsius). But Burt posted a devastating critique of that measurement in October 2016, concluding it was “essentially not possible from a meteorological perspective,” and that the weather observer committed errors. 
 
 For the 128.7 degree-reading Ahvaz posted on Weather Underground to stand and rank among the highest observed world temperatures, it will require review by the World Meteorological Organization. 
 
 The scorching temperature reading was brought about by a dome of heat centered over the Middle East. 
 
 The excessively hot air over Ahvaz, a city of 1.1 million people, felt even more stifling due to high humidity. As the temperature climbed into the high 120s, the dew point, a measure of humidity, peaked in the low 70s; a high level for the desert location (due to moist air flow from the Persian Gulf, to the south). The heat index — a measure of how hot it feels factoring in the humidity — exceeded 140 degrees. This combination of heat and humidity was so extreme that it was beyond levels the heat index was designed to compute. 
 
 In the Persian Gulf city of Jask, Iran, about 800 miles southeast of Ahvaz, the humidity was even more suffocating. The dew point on Wednesday morning hit 91.4 degrees. Dew points above 90 are quite rare. The highest dew point ever measured on Earth is 95 degrees (35 Celsius), set at Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, on July 8, 2003. 
 
 Thursday marked the second straight day of record heat in Ahvaz. On Wednesday, it hit 127.2 degrees (52.9 Celsius), breaking the record for Iran’s hottest June temperature, only to be exceeded the next day. 
 
 These Iranian temperature extremes come just a month after several locations in the Middle East recorded their hottest May temperatures during another exceptional heat wave. 
 
 On May 28, the western Pakistani town of Turbat hit 128.3 degrees (53.5 Celsius), tying the all-time highest temperature in that country and the world record temperature for May, according to Weather Underground meteorologist Jeff Masters. 
 
 At the same time Masters reported that at the military base of Konarak in eastern Iran, the temperature reached 127 degrees, “destroying the record of the highest temperature ever recorded in May in Iran (50.5°C in Bostan in May 1999).” 
 
 All of these record-breaking temperatures in recent years, including Thursday’s reading in Ahvaz as well as those set in Kuwait and Death Valley in 2016 and 2013, represent temperature extremes consistent with what climate scientists expect to see in a warming world. 
 
 The National Academy of Sciences published a report in 2016 that said worsening heat waves are among the weather events that can be most easily connected to human-caused climate change. 
 
 A study published in the journal Nature Climate Change in 2015 cautioned that by the end of the century, due to climate change, temperatures in the Middle East may become too hot for human survival. 
 
 Correction, July 3, 2017: The original version of this post said Ahvaz may have tied the world-record high temperature of 129.2 degrees based on an observation posted on the Weather Underground website. It turns out Weather Underground rounds temperatures in Celsius up to the nearest degree, which artificially increased the actual high of 53.7 Celsius (128.7 Fahrenheit) to 54 degrees (129.2 Fahrenheit). This post has been corrected to note that real high was 128.7 degrees (53.7 Celsius) – which is 0.5 degrees lower than the highest observed world temperature in modern times of 129.2 degrees. ||||| International tourists got what they came for Thursday at Death Valley National Park as the official temperature soared to 127 degrees at 4:42 p.m., tying a record for the date set in 1993, according to the National Weather Service. 
 
 A couple poses at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center thermometer in Death Valley National Park, Calif., Thursday, July 26, 2018.The official temperature at the park rose to 127 on Thursday, although the thermometer at the visitor center showed higher numbers. (Richard Brian/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP) 
 
 Visitors take in the scenery at Dante's View, a popular lookout point in Death Valley National Park, Calif., Thursday, July 26, 2018. Richard Brian Las Vegas Review-Journal @vegasphotograph 
 
 Valeriy Trushevskyy of Germany visits Badwater Basin, 282 feet below sea level, in Death Valley National Park, Calif., Thursday, July 26, 2018. Richard Brian Las Vegas Review-Journal @vegasphotograph 
 
 Sherry Chen of China shades herself from the sun with a thin pink veil while visiting Badwater Basin, 282 feet below sea level, in Death Valley National Park, Calif., Thursday, July 26, 2018. Richard Brian Las Vegas Review-Journal @vegasphotograph 
 
 Diana Senci of the Netherlands visits Badwater Basin, 282 feet below sea level, in Death Valley National Park, Calif., Thursday, July 26, 2018. Richard Brian Las Vegas Review-Journal @vegasphotograph 
 
 Luuk Broekhaus of the Netherlands poses at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center thermometer in Death Valley National Park, Calif., Thursday, July 26, 2018. Richard Brian Las Vegas Review-Journal @vegasphotograph 
 
 Las Vegas residents Cory Perez, left, and Jon Bach take photos at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center thermometer in Death Valley National Park, Calif., Thursday, July 26, 2018. Richard Brian Las Vegas Review-Journal @vegasphotograph 
 
 Cecile and Sebastien Abin of France share a kiss at Dante's View, a popular lookout point in Death Valley National Park, Calif., Thursday, July 26, 2018. Richard Brian Las Vegas Review-Journal @vegasphotograph 
 
 Rich Salvatore of Las Vegas poses at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center thermometer in Death Valley National Park, Calif., Thursday, July 26, 2018. The official temperature at the park rose to 127 on Thursday, although the thermometer at the visitor center showed higher numbers. Richard Brian Las Vegas Review-Journal @vegasphotograph 
 
 A sign marking sea level is on the cliff from Badwater Basin, 282 feet below sea level, in Death Valley National Park, Calif., on Thursday, July 26, 2018. Richard Brian Las Vegas Review-Journal @vegasphotograph 
 
 Stephanie Zampin of the French Alps takes a selfie at Dante's View, a popular lookout point in Death Valley National Park, Calif., Thursday, July 26, 2018. Richard Brian Las Vegas Review-Journal @vegasphotograph 
 
 A view of the crystalline salt spires as seen from DevilÕs Golf Course in Death Valley National Park, Calif., Thursday, July 26, 2018. Richard Brian Las Vegas Review-Journal @vegasphotograph 
 
 Badwater Basin, 282 feet below sea level, is seen from Dante's View lookout in Death Valley National Park, Calif., on Thursday, July 26, 2018. Richard Brian Las Vegas Review-Journal @vegasphotograph 
 
 A sign marking sea level is seen on the side near the Inn at Furnace Creek in Death Valley National Park, Calif., on Thursday, July 26, 2018. Richard Brian Las Vegas Review-Journal @vegasphotograph 
 
 A sign marks the entrance to Death Valley National Park, Calif., on Thursday, July 26, 2018. Richard Brian Las Vegas Review-Journal @vegasphotograph 
 
 DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK — The heat stung like pins and needles. Arid winds whipped the faces of tourists swigging water and sweating through their clothes in the hottest place in North America. 
 
 They didn’t mind too much. After all, that’s why they came here. Most are tourists, some traveling across the globe to get to the park. A few run marathons in the brutal heat. Others just take it all in, calling it “a dream” to witness and experience. 
 
 They got what they came for Thursday as the official temperature soared to 127 degrees at 4:42 p.m., tying a record for the date set in 1933, according to the National Weather Service. Highs also reached 127 Tuesday and Wednesday. 
 
 Death Valley’s all-time record is 134 degrees, set July 10, 1913, at Furnace Creek. That marks the hottest atmospheric temperature ever recorded on Earth. 
 
 On Thursday, park visitors found ways to cope with the heat. French tourists huddled under a pink umbrella. Austrian tourists hid under their straw hats. Men peeled off their shirts, using them as shields for bald heads, and slid sunglasses over their T-shirt-covered ears. 
 
 Going to extremes 
 
 Summer months at Death Valley can be among the park’s busiest, drawing many international tourists, particularly Europeans, park spokeswoman Abigail Wines said. 
 
 July, August and September were the busiest months for the park last year, she said. 
 
 “They want to see the most extreme part of the American West,” Wines said. “They travel to experience something different than what they have at home.” 
 
 Some people underestimate the desert’s punishing heat, she said. One summer, two people dressed in Chewbacca and Darth Vader costumes were fighting in the parking lot. 
 
 “People don’t realize it can be deadly,” she said. “They think if they’re not sweating, they’re not hot. But they don’t know that they’re sweating, because it’s so dry.” 
 
 A person dies in the park from heat-related illnesses generally every other year, she said. 
 
 Last week, a 57-year-old hiker from Huntington Beach, California, fell to his death. 
 
 The Inyo County deputy coroner determined the cause of death to be a skull fracture caused by a fall, compounded by exposure to the elements. 
 
 The hottest month for the park is July, when the daily averages 116 degrees. 
 
 Another man thought he could run during the hottest part of the day and died of heat exhaustion, Wines said. 
 
 “I think ‘wind-heat factor’ should be a term,” she said. “Your whole body is in a blow dryer. It’s just hot air forced against your skin.” 
 
 ‘The hotter, the better’ 
 
 At the entrance to Death Valley National Park, Oliver Anne and his family from France were ready to go to Badwater Basin. They’d been planning their visit for a year. 
 
 “We wanted to get to the hottest spot,” Anne said. “The hotter, the better.” 
 
 A pamphlet titled “A Visitor Guide for Summer 2018” advises tourists to remember they’re at the “hottest place on Earth” and offers safety tips in English, French, Dutch and Italian. 
 
 At Dante’s View, 5,000 feet above Death Valley, a breeze offered slight comfort for those overlooking the salt flats below. 
 
 For Adrian Turrin, visiting from Switzerland with his wife and two kids, even the marginally cooler weather came as a relief. 
 
 “Up here, it’s better,” said the bare-chested tourist, a white T-shirt wrapped around his head. 
 
 The night before, Turrin said, the family left their RV running as they camped in the park. 
 
 It was too hot to barbecue outside, so they settled for risotto and salad inside the vehicle. 
 
 “We did not have a good night,” he said. “The heat crept through.” 
 
 Also at Dante’s View, French tourists Cecile Abin and her husband, Sebastien, posed for a photo at the top of the peak. They gave each other a peck on the lips. 
 
 “We did not imagine the heat,” Cecile Abin said. They each drank three liters of water before walking through Badwater Basin, she said. 
 
 “It feels like we’re playing a very intensive sport,” Sebastien Abin said. 
 
 It’s their first time in the United States. 
 
 “I’ve seen Western movies. Now it’s like a dream,” Cecile Abin said. “The motels, diner, desert, it looks like a movie.” 
 
 Their next destination Thursday? 
 
 “We’re driving next to the hotel, and we’re going to the swimming pool,” she said, laughing. 
 
 Not far away, a group of runners who participated in the Badwater 135 marathon lugged coolers and refilled their waters. They carried a spray bottle. 
 
 The three runners, all from Italy, said they kept hydrated by drinking electrolytes, Coca-Cola, water and beer. They needed the beer for carbohydrates, the runners said. 
 
 At Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level, the desert’s steamy heat radiated a mirage as tourists walked along the saltwater flat. A small pool of water at one end scorched the toes of a tourist from London. 
 
 Diana Senci, visiting from Holland with her husband, Matthew, hid underneath a damp white towel as she made her way back to the car. 
 
 “I did not want to come when I saw the news forecast, but he insisted,” she said of their desert trip. “It’s worth it.” 
 
 Contact Briana Erickson at berickson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5244. Follow @brianarerick on Twitter. 
 
 Safety tips Advice from Death Valley National Park for staying cool in the summer: — Water: Drink at least one gallon of water per day. Carry plenty of extra drinking water in your car. — Heat and dehydration: If you feel dizzy, nauseous or have a headache, get out of the sun immediately and drink plenty of water. Dampen your clothing to lower body temperature. Heat and dehydration can kill. — Summer driving: Stay on paved roads in the summer. If your car breaks down, stay with it until help comes. Be prepared; carry plenty of extra water. — Stay alert and slow down: The most common cause of death in the park is single-vehicle accidents. A moment of inattention can send you, your car and your loved ones flipping into the rocky desert. — Do not rely on technology: Your cellphone will not work in most of the park. — Hiking: DO NOT hike in the low elevations when temperatures are hot. The mountains are cooler in the summer. 
 
 Furnace Creek, CA 92328
– It's probably been a hot summer where you are, but nothing like this: California's Death Valley registered an average temperature of 107.4 degrees for the month of July, per the National Weather Service. The previous record, set in 1917, was 107.2 degrees. It's not only a record for Death Valley: "It should be noted that this is the hottest average monthly temperature ever measured in the US, or, for that matter, anywhere in the Western Hemisphere," a climatologist tells the Washington Post. If 107.4 doesn't seem insanely high, keep in mind that was the average temperature of both days and nights, notes the Los Angeles Times. During the day, it typically got up to 120 degrees before cooling down to about 95 at night. The hottest day came on July 7, which saw a temperature of 127. Fortunately, few people were affected: As USA Today notes, Death Valley is a national park with no permanent residents save for park rangers.