Death Valley just recorded 54.4 degrees Celsius which, if verified, could torch the record book.

Extract from ABC News 

ABC Weather

By Kate Doyle

Posted Yesterday at 7:23pm

Furnace Creek in Death Valley has registered several of the highest temperatures historically.(Commons: Broken Inaglory)

Preliminary recordings show Death Valley in California on Sunday reached 130 degrees Fahrenheit, or 54.4 degrees Celsius, according to the National Weather Service in the United States.

Key points:

• Death Valley's Furnace Creek weather station recorded 54.4C at 3:41pm local time on Sunday
• It is short of the official record of 56.7C recorded at the same station back in 1913
• As many old records are widely considered questionable, if verified, this could potentially be the hottest reliable temperature on record

If verified, it could possibly threaten the hottest temperatures ever reliably recorded on Earth — depending on how much faith you have in old records.

Temperature records are a hotly contested, confusing business.

As it stands, the hottest temperature on record is 56.7C, recorded at the same weather station as Sunday's reading, Furnace Creek, back on July 7, 1913.

But this old record is widely disputed.

Even the official temperature record website notes there may have been a sandstorm at the time which could have affected the reading.

If we ignore the 1913 Death Valley record, the next highest temperature on the official record is 55.0C recorded in Tunisia back in 1931, but this value is also widely considered questionable.

Then there are a few locations which are more reliably recorded at 54.0C — Furnace Creek on June 13, 2013, Mitribah in Kuwait on July 21, 2016, and Turbat in Pakistan on May 28, 2017.

So if verified, Sunday's 54.4C would beat out those more reputable values.

But do not hold your breath waiting for official verification from the World Meteorological Organisation, the process can take years.

Even once on the list, it is up for review — as happened to the once-record 58.0C recorded in El Azizia in modern day Libya back in 1922 which was struck off the official records following a review conducted by the World Meteorological Organisation in 2010 to 2012.

Australia's highest official temperature is 50.7C, recorded at Oodnadatta Airport back on January 2, 1960.

These high temperatures are the latest record news to come out of a hot northern hemisphere summer which has so far included Arctic fires, widespread heatwaves, and now fires in California.

Posted Yesterday