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It Hit 128 Degrees In Death Valley Yesterday
Photo by Shawn S. Park via the LAist Featured Photos pool
Death Valley lived up to its name when it hit a scorching 128 degrees yesterday.
It was so hot that someone from the National Park Service decided to try to fry an egg in the heat—and it worked:
128 degrees is ridiculously hot, but believe it or not it's not quite record-breaking hot. Greenland Ranch in Death Valley recorded the hottest temperature in the world's recorded history on July 10, 1913 when the mercury hit 134 degrees. Death Valley did tie its all-time June record, which was last hit in 1994:
@DeathValleyNPS Thanks for passing a photo of the 128 degrees on June 29th onto us! #cawx pic.twitter.com/8h89YKoKnW
— NWS Las Vegas (@NWSVegas) June 30, 2013
You can watch the mercury rise today to see if it breaks the record at this page via the National Weather Service.The high temperatures in Death Valley are a part of a heat wave that is scorching the Southwest and breaking temperature records from Phoenix to the seaside community of Camarillo. It hit 119 degrees in downtown Las Vegas and 116 on The Strip, according to the National Weather Service. It was 119 in Phoenix. Salt Lake City's airport had never hit 105 degrees, and so far it has two days in a row. Palm Springs hit 122 degrees, and Lancaster broke a record for the day with its 111 degree heat.
One elderly man without air conditioning died in Las Vegas in part due to the heat, according to the Associated Press. Another elderly man suffered heat stroke when the air conditioning went out in his car on a long road trip.
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It was ever-so-slightly cooler here in Los Angeles, although we did break some records for having really high minimum temperatures. It got up to 106 degrees in Woodland Hills and 107 in Saugus yesterday. The coast and the rest of the city were spared triple-digit temperatures, and there was even some lingering June gloom:
Patchy dense fog will affect the Los Angeles county beaches and LAX thru mid morning. Slow down in fog. #laweather pic.twitter.com/MQfw8OZG0o
— NWS Los Angeles (@NWSLosAngeles) June 29, 2013
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