Death valley, in eastern California, is the lowest and driest part of the North American continent. And now a remote spot in this place has earned the title of hottest place on Earth in nearly 100 years.

On august 16th 2020, a spot in death valley (Furnace Creek) recorded a temperature of 54.4° C. When verified by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) that temperature will be the hottest recorded since 1931, and the third hottest since record keeping began. Furnace Creek also holds the record for the hottest recorded temperature on Earth, logged in 1913 at 56.7° C. In second place is Kebili, Tunisia, with a logged temperature of 55.0° C on July 7, 1931.

Some scientists suggested that the logged temperature was essentially not possible based on meteorological conditions, including that there was no evidence of a particularly intense heat wave from any other stations in the area at the time. For now, though, the record stands, because no credible substantial evidence supporting this claim has been submitted to WMO. In 2012, WMO determined that what was then to be the hottest recorded temperature, a 1912 observation of 57.8° C in Libya, was not valid. That was supported by the discovery in 2010 of the original, mislogged observations.