Hottest temperature on record possible this weekend in Death Valley, California

A meteorologist like me lives to observe everyday weather, waiting for unique atmospheric events—and taking note of weather extremes.  Of course, if that’s true, why am I living in coastal California where weather extremes (or any kind of interesting weather for that matter) are the exception?  I grew up in Pennsylvania and lived for three years in Virginia Beach, Virginia.  Back there, I didn’t have to stop and think what season it was.  I sort of knew it innately.  Here in Monterey, that’s not the case.  To summarize, it’s a little cooler in the winter and a little warmer in the summer.  There are few temperature extremes and snow makes it to the ground only about every ten years or so.  And rain (here on the coast) occurs only during the winter (November-April).  When most of the year’s rainfall occurs during the winter half of the year, that’s what’s called a Mediterranean Climate.

It’s obviously because of my meteorological background that I chose weather-related topics for two of my three thrillers.  In Category 5, my first, hurricanes fit the bill.  In novel three, my latest, White Thaw: The Helheim Conspiracy, the story line revolves around global climate change—and not in a good way.  The bad guys want to modify the climate for their own maniacal, dastardly purposes.  To read an initial review, go to https://www.bloggernews.net/128515.

Speaking of neat weather events, I’m reminded of a party I went to in nearby Salinas shortly after I married my wife, Becky, in 1984.  Most of us at the party were meteorologists and, during that particular evening, there was a weather system moving through the area, with occasional thunder and lightning.  As Becky tells the story, she was looking around the party and wondering where everyone had gone.  Most of us were on the porch watching some piddly displays of lightning.  Still, for us meteorologists, it was great.  Becky, who grew up in Kansas and knew something about lightning, informed the group: “You call this lightning?”  She then proceeded to wow the crowd by admitting that, back in Kansas, during a Girl Scout outing, she had seen not one, not two, but three tornadoes at one time.  She instantly became the celebrity of the party.

Still, in terms of extreme events, I’m really not giving California its due.  As my meteorologist friend, Robin Brody (who (next to Becky) is my chapter-by-chapter reader for all of my novels) informed me this past week, there is a chance that the world record for temperature could be matched or broken this weekend.  Turns out, Furnace Creek in Death Valley, California, lays claim to the highest temperature ever recorded on Planet Earth.  That momentous distinction was claimed back in 1913 (July 10 to be more accurate), and it stands today: 134F (56.67C).  Robin emphasized that a humongous upper-level high-pressure system is a perfect setup to try to approach that temperature.  Robin can get very excited about such things.

So, this weekend, our world record may or may not be broken.  But even if it is, it’s still ours to claim.  That should remind us that much of our concern regarding global warming is—duh!—global warming.  It seems that temperature extremes are being broken very frequently these days.  So what? you say.  It’s true that it is not unusual for temperature records to be exceeded.  But the problem is that many more high temperature records are being broken than low temperature records.  This anomaly is consistent with climatic analyses that indicate that average temperatures are on their way up.

There are some who will deny that the planet’s temperatures are changing.  And then there are those who say that humans have nothing to do with global warming, ignoring the preponderance of evidence that suggest that greenhouse gasses are a significant cause.  This latter disagreement can be debated, but let’s not do that just now.  Let’s just give an enthusiastic “Hip hip hooray” to our grand state of California.  May our world record for high temperature remain the pride of our state.

Categorised in: Category 5, White Thaw

This post was written by paulmarktag01