In 2016, climatologist Chris Burt asked me to write an article for his WU (Weather Underground) blog regarding my research on the record high temperatures of July, 1913, in Death Valley. Chris helped me write the article and he had a graphic artist draw up some maps and tables. Chris and I agree that the maximum temperatures of 127F to 134F during the first half of July, 1913, at Greenland Ranch in Death Valley are not valid. The article appeared on the Weather Underground web site in October, 2016:
In recent years the images and figures for the article are not showing on the WU site. The article and all of the figures and tables are provided below.
————————-
In 2012 the WMO (World Meteorological Organization) disallowed what had long been considered the hottest air temperature ever measured on Earth: a 58.0°C (136.4°F) reading measured at El Azizia, Libya on September 13, 1922. As a result of this record being struck from the books, the temperature of 134°F (56.7°C) recorded at Greenland Ranch at Furnace Creek in Death Valley, California on July 10, 1913 became, by default, the new world’s hottest air temperature yet measured. However, it is possible to demonstrate that a temperature of 134°F in Death Valley on July 10, 1913, was essentially not possible from a meteorological perspective, using an officially sanctioned USWB shelter and thermometer and following proper procedures observationally.
The Setting
Death Valley is the lowest, driest and, during the summer months, hottest location in the United States. At its lowest spot, Badwater Basin, the altitude stands at 282 feet below sea level. Some 15 miles north of Badwater and about 100 feet higher is the Furnace Creek oasis and resort. A weather station was established here under the aegis of The USWB (U.S. Weather Bureau) in June 1911, and named ‘Greenland Ranch’. The ranch was developed by the William Tell Coleman Borax Company in 1883, and was named such for the alfalfa fields planted for the mule teams used to transport borax and for feed for other ranch animals consumed by the miners, ranch hands and visitors. In 1934, the oasis area became more commonly known as ‘Furnace Creek Ranch’ and Death Valley became a National Monument. The U.S. Park Service established a weather station in 1934 at their Cow Creek headquarters, three miles north of Furnace Creek. Both Cow Creek and Greenland Ranch stations closed in 1961 when the Park Service set up a new cooperative weather station, again under the aegis of the USWB, at the Death Valley National Park Visitors Center where it remains to this day. This new station, named ‘Death Valley’, is approximately 1000 feet (300 meters) north of the former Greenland Ranch.
The focus of this investigation is the unprecedented temperature record of July 7-14, 1913 when the USWB COOP observer at Greenland Ranch, Oscar Denton, measured a string of abnormally hot days. Maximum temperatures for July 7-14, 1913, were: 127°, 128°, 129°, 134°, 129°, 130°, 131°, and 127°F respectively. Minimums were near-to-slightly above average for this 8-day period, ranging from 85°F to 93°F. Each daily maximum temperature from July 7 to July 14, 1913 equaled or exceeded all other maximum temperature values at Greenland Ranch for the ensuing 47-year period of record until a reading of 129°F was measured in July 1960.
CAPTION: Above is a copy of the actual original COOP form supplied to the USWB by Oscar Denton. Many ‘cleaned up’ copies of this have appeared in other articles concerning the Greenland Ranch record. Image credit Death Valley NP archives.
The Instrumentation and its Exposure in 1913
The location for the instrument shelter (a standard Stevenson screen), first installed by the U.S. Weather Bureau in 1911 at Greenland Ranch, was “carefully selected” according to George H. Willson (see Monthly Weather Review, June 1915). Mr. Willson was, at that time, the district forecaster and section director for the U.S Weather Bureau (USWB), Department of Agriculture, San Francisco station and was responsible for climate data in Death Valley during its early years. The shelter housed standard USWB maximum and minimum thermometers, and was well exposed to wind. Structures and trees at the ranch were of sufficient distance to disallow any very localized build-up of hot air around the station during bright sunshine. It was placed “over an alfalfa sod”, and “the location is such that the shelter is not exposed to the reflected heat from the desert.” Willson “italicized” the above quote for emphasis. Willson continued:
“Evaporation is excessive in this section and liberal irrigation is necessary to maintain plant life; hence, the cooling by evaporation from the surrounding damp ground and live vegetation is probably sufficient to lower the readings of the instruments several degrees. Undoubtedly the temperature down in the desert bottom of the valley is much higher than it is at Greenland Ranch.”
About 40 acres of land here was irrigated for the alfalfa crop and other fruits and vegetables. Willson made it clear that the new station was in a spot that was cooler, perhaps significantly cooler, than the rest of the basin bottom.
Thermometer shelters were routinely placed above grass during the first part of the 20th century, even in extremely arid areas where grass was scarce. It was thought important to have consistent environments around and below the shelters to allow valid and meaningful temperature comparisons from station to station. It goes without saying but needs to be emphasized: a desert weather station above grass is representative of a desert area above grass, and it is not representative of a desert area above a typical, mostly barren, desert surface.
CAPTION: A photo of the Greenland Ranch USWB weather shelter taken sometime in the early 1920s or perhaps late 1910s. The image is the oldest known photograph of the weather station (circa late 1910s to as late as 1921) and is looking west. Photo from the NWS Las Vegas archives.
An image of the Greenland Ranch weather station from the 1910s or 1920s shows the instruments above bare ground. It is not known exactly when the change occurred from “over an alfalfa sod” to “over bare ground”. Shelter maximums during July 1913 would have been approximately two-to-three degrees F° cooler compared to a shelter above bare ground and far from any irrigated areas if, in fact, the shelter was above grass in July 1913. The weather stations in and around Furnace Creek have been above bare ground since at least the 1920s. The highest officially observed temperatures since 1913 have been several readings of 129°F (53.9°C). These were observed on July 18, 1960 at the Greenland Ranch location and also on July 17, 1998, July 20, 2005, July 7, 2007, and June 30, 2013 at the Death Valley/Furnace Creek (NP Visitors Center) location. Photographic evidence indicates the actual maximum on the latter date attained 129.2°F.
CAPTION: A photograph of the official Death Valley maximum thermometer at time of observation (7 a.m. PT) on Monday morning July 1, 2013. The photo shows a maximum of 129.2°F was achieved on June 30th, perhaps the highest temperature ever credibly observed on Earth. A similar reading (54.0°C) from Mitribah, Kuwait in July 2016 has been confirmed by the WMO (U.N. World Meteorological Organization). Photo courtesy of Death Valley National Park and NWS-Las Vegas.
Meteorology of Summer Heat Waves in the Death Valley Region
At near 36°N latitude, Death Valley is ideally situated geographically for hot weather during the summer months. At this latitude, subsiding air and clear skies dominate (associated with the northern fringe of the planet’s Hadley cell), and the vast majority of summer days are clear or mostly clear in Death Valley. During the late spring and early summer the jet stream and the associated ‘westerlies’ migrate pole-ward. With this cooler mid-tropospheric flow shunted well to the north, warm air is allowed to build aloft over the Desert Southwest and the Death Valley region. From June to August monsoon-related moisture and thunderstorms are common in the Desert Southwest, sometimes impacting Death Valley. This weather regime is associated with lower maximum temperatures due to cloudiness, precipitation, and general evaporative effects such as storm outflow. However, Death Valley is far enough north and west to avoid most of the monsoon activity that migrates from the Sonoran Desert. Because of the prevailing subsidence, coupled with the high terrain on all sides of Death Valley, it is difficult for low-level moisture to reach the depression itself. Normally, any low-level moisture mixes out into the drier upper levels of the atmosphere during daytime convection. The high mountain ranges to the west, especially the Sierra Nevada and Panamint Range, effectively cast a cool-season (October-April) ‘rain-shadow’ over Death Valley, so Pacific storm systems usually sweep through with little more than wind and clouds. On average, the basin of Death Valley receives only 2.0”-2.5” inches of rain annually, with less than an inch on average due to monsoon and tropical-related activity from May through September.
Death Valley’s barren surface is typically bone dry in summer, and it warms easily under the high desert sun. Surface temperatures of 200°F have been measured, as was the case on July 15, 1972 when the ground surface temperature reached 201°F; at the same time the shelter air temperature stood at 128°F. Since little solar radiation is utilized for evaporation and transpiration, nearly all ‘incoming’ solar radiation (that is not reflected skyward) heats the ground. Intense daytime heating of the surface creates a relatively hot, near-ground layer of air characterized by very steep lapse rates (a ‘super-adiabatic’ layer). This creates a very unstable environment and a strong vertical exchange of air is required to mitigate and regulate such. By early afternoon any vestiges of overnight cooling have ‘mixed out’ entirely, and there is deep mixing throughout the lower half of the troposphere throughout the region. Above the near-ground ‘super-adiabatic’ layer, the environmental lapse rate is at (or very near) the dry adiabatic lapse rate of 5.4°F per 1000 feet. The unconditionally unstable, deep, mixed layer typically extends up to about the 600-millibar level (about 15,000 feet above the bottom of Death Valley) on nearly every summer afternoon.
A consequence of the deep, mixed layer is a virtual connection between its top and its bottom. Once established and maintained, the entire column warms (or cools) as an entity. Any significant increase in ambient temperature at shelter level (1.5 meters above the ground) would be, and must be, associated with a similar degree of warming of the entire air column. Thus, the temperature typically changes little at desert stations during the hottest hours of the afternoon. Arnold Court, an expert desert climatologist for the U.S. Army in the 1940s (see references), found that shelter temperatures remained within 2 or 3 degrees (F°) of the maximum temperature from about 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in Death Valley on July afternoons. The physics of the deep, mixed layer does not allow for the development of area-wide ‘hot spots’ within a region, and it does not allow significant afternoon temperature ‘spikes’ to occur. What it does allow is a fairly predictable pattern of temperature in the desert both diurnally and spatially. It promotes a strong correlation, on a regional scale, between daily maximum temperature and elevation.
Llewelyn Williams, a geographer with U.S. Army Natick Laboratories, examined the conditions favoring high surface temperatures at Yuma, Arizona, and determined that the key to high ambient air temperatures is “warm air between 5,000 and 14,000 feet and a well-developed vertical exchange induced during afternoon convection” (1967). The study also found that “there exists an upper limit to what the combination of radiation and ground surface temperature can do in developing high ambient air temperatures”.
CAPTION: This sample sounding from Las Vegas, Nevada (from August 2016) nicely illustrates the typical change in temperature with height in the Desert Southwest on dry summer afternoons. Note that the environmental lapse rate closely approximates the dry adiabatic lapse rate up to the 600-millibar level. Sounding from NWS-Las Vegas.
Williams’ concept of an “upper limit” for maximum temperature applies to all of the Desert Southwest during the summer, including Death Valley. The lapse rate of the deep, mixed layer cannot physically get any steeper above any sunbaked and shallow near-surface layer. Thus the “upper limit” shelter temperature is governed by air temperature thousands of feet above the surface and not by local surface level weather conditions. There are, for all intents and purposes, no small-scale weather features that could cause a significant increase in temperature on a local scale once the atmosphere has mixed out. Of course, there are a myriad of possible local differences in wind, exposure, ventilation, nearby vegetation, terrain, ground cover, and aspect that will cause some small variance in maximum temperatures at any particular place on any particular day. However, these effects are minimized at well-sited weather stations.
The hottest afternoons of summer in Death Valley (and the surrounding region) occur when the air is hottest between about the 850 and 600-millibar levels (5,000-15,000 feet). The upper-level anticyclones (or ‘upper highs’) that are responsible for the hottest weather cover vast areas, and are associated with weak horizontal temperature gradients. Thus, each station in a region is essentially working on the same air mass with regard to maximum temperature potential. The days (and the summers) beneath the strongest upper highs and the warmest temperatures between altitudes of about 5,000 feet and 15,000 feet are the days (and the summers) that are hottest at shelter level. In addition, all stations are affected similarly with regard to departure-from-normal for maximum temperatures because of the broad and homogenous nature of the air mass that is affecting the region.
It is the temperature of the free air thousands of feet above Death Valley that determines just how hot an afternoon at shelter level can become.
When under the influence of such homogenous and well-mixed air masses associated with upper high-pressure domes, all regional weather stations easily attain their ‘upper limit’ temperature on summer afternoons. It is <i>elevation</i> that essentially determines the difference in the maximum temperature between one site and another. These temperature differences are remarkably consistent in the Death Valley region on a day-to-day basis. On occasion, clouds and cooling due to moisture and storms might disrupt the consistency of the regional temperature-elevation relationship (by not permitting some areas to reach their ‘upper-limit’ maximum temperature), but these instances are relatively infrequent in midsummer.
Thus, not surprisingly, for the Death Valley region, there is a strong correlation when plotting station elevations versus:
1) average daily maximum temperatures for summer months
2) average annual maximum temperatures
3) extreme maximum temperatures of record
4) day-to-day maximum temperatures during the hottest summertime periods
Note that summer maximums in the region change with elevation at a rate close to 4.5 degrees F per 1000 feet, a rate not quite as steep as the dry adiabatic lapse rate of 5.4 degrees F per 1000 feet.
CAPTION: NOTE ABOUT THE TABLE ABOVE: Problematic and questionable reports, such as the maximum of 134°F at Greenland Ranch in 1913, were excluded. Also not incorporated in the averages and extremes are data from periods when a station appeared to be inadequately sited (albeit temporarily) and was providing unrepresentative maximums compared to its long-term record. Graphic by William T. Reid.
The physical characteristics of the atmosphere above the Death Valley region on typical, warm-to-hot and sunny summer afternoons are such that temperature differences from station to station are due almost entirely to elevation differences, and the rate of change with elevation is consistent. Under the influence of a mid-level anticyclone, the departures from average for maximums are generally very similar region-wide. In summer, if the lower-to-mid-troposphere is warm enough to allow only near-normal maximums in the region, then it is not warm enough to cause MUCH-above-normal maximums at ANY location in the region. Heat waves are never localized in summer. Maximum temperatures are quite predictable and are dependent on temperatures between about 5,000 and 15,000 feet. The hottest events are associated with temperatures of about 17°C to 19°C at the 700 mb level. The average and extreme temperature data in the table above are for each station’s period of record that varies from site to site.
Comparison of Temperatures at Death Valley to Locations in the Vicinity
There are a number of ways to illustrate how anomalous the Greenland Ranch temperature reports of July 1913 were from a climatological and statistical perspective, for instance:
—-Dr. Arnold Court in his monograph “How Hot Is Death Valley?” (see references) was skeptical of the record of 134°F as early as 1949, determining that a value that high would be expected statistically only once every 650 years based on the first 37 annual maximums at Greenland Ranch.
—-The diurnal temperature ranges were exceptionally large for July during the first two weeks of July 1913.
—- All annual maximums at Greenland Ranch (1911-1960) were 120°-127°F (aside from 1913), and all at the Death Valley location (1961-2016) were 119°-129°F. The combined average (of 105 annual maximums) is 124.3°F and the standard deviation of such is 2.2. An annual maximum of 134°F would be a full 4.5 standard deviations from the mean.
The best way to ‘question’ the record maximums of July 7-14, 1913, however, might be to demonstrate that such extremely hot conditions were essentially not possible physically at that time. Based on the surrounding station data, the atmosphere above the Death Valley region was not warm enough to allow authentic maximums near and above 130°F at Greenland Ranch during the second week of July 1913. As mentioned earlier, summertime heat events here are characterized by a strong correlation between elevation and maximum temperature, and are characterized by relatively similar ‘departures from average’ for the maximums at stations in the region. During hot weather, the maximum temperatures at any selected station tend to be very well supported by the maximum temperatures attained at ALL of the surrounding stations. Of course, this is assuming that all of the temperature measurements are valid. This section compares several heat episodes to the one of July 1913.
The nearest (long term) stations to Greenland Ranch with temperature data during its early years of operation were as follows:
To the WEST: Lone Pine and Independence in Owens Valley of California near 3900’ feet in elevation.
To the SOUTH and SOUTHEAST: Barstow, CA and Las Vegas, NV near 2000’.
To the NORTH: Tonopah and Columbia (near Goldfield), Nevada near 6000’.
All the above sites are 75 to 115 miles distant from Greenland Ranch (the weather stations at Independence and Tonopah employed U.S. Weather Bureau observers). The elevation-versus-temperature charts provided in this section include a sloping ‘average lapse rate’ line through each plot for Greenland Ranch. Its slope of 4.5 degrees F per 1000 feet closely approximates the average change of daily maximum temperature with elevation in the region during Julys. Despite the distances involved, if dry and sunny weather prevails AND the data are problem-free, then all stations should plot relatively closely to the average lapse rate line through Greenland Ranch. For that matter, ALL stations should plot relatively closely to a line with the same slope through ANY station plot.
CAPTION: A map illustrating all of the sites mentioned in this article. Map courtesy of Mark Stroud, Moon Street Cartography.
The Summer of 1913
An inexplicable change in the correlations and differences between the sites listed above developed during the spring and early summer of 1913. Greenland Ranch maximums increased to levels not supported by surrounding data. For June, July, and August of 1913, maximums at Greenland Ranch averaged 28 and 36 degrees F warmer than at Independence and Tonopah, respectively. This is an increase of four-to-five degrees compared to the differences during the summers of 1911 and 1912. Similar, wider-than-normal differences in average maximums were evident in April and May of 1913 as well.
For the first 15 days of July 1913, the average maximum of 125.7°F at Greenland Ranch was 9.3 degrees F above its average daily maximum temperature for the usual July (Table A and charts). The surrounding stations were generally 2.5 to 4.5 degrees F above average, so the maximums at Greenland Ranch were running about 6 degrees F warmer, over and above the typical differences, than the surrounding sites. The Greenland Ranch maximums depict an unprecedented two-week period of extremely hot weather, while the other stations show a heat wave which might be characterized as ‘better-than-average’ but certainly not ‘extreme’.
The differences are even wider for the hottest 5-day period in July 1913: from the 9th to the 13th. Greenland Ranch maximums averaged 30.4 degrees F higher than Independence and 41.6 degrees F higher than at Tonopah. The table below shows average maximums and departures for July 9th to July 13th:
CAPTION: For the monthly maximums in July 1913, Greenland Ranch’s 134°F is 18 degrees F above the July average max temperature, compared to departures of only +7 to +11 degrees F at the nearest stations:
CAPTION: The maximums at surrounding stations would suggest, or support, a daily extreme maximum of about 123°-126°F at Greenland Ranch during the heat wave of July 9-13. Authentic temperatures near and above 130°F in Death Valley are not supported by any of the maximums at the closest stations.
Looking at the station-elevation plots, the surrounding stations fall well to the left of the average temperature-elevation/lapse-rate lines through Greenland Ranch for both the 15-day period of July 1913 and for the extreme daily maximum during the period. If it is presumed that the lower troposphere was very well-mixed in the Death Valley region; and if it is presumed that the maximum temperature data are reliable at the stations surrounding Greenland Ranch; and if it is presumed that the instrumentation at Greenland Ranch was problem-free and in the same place as it was during the summers of 1911 and 1912; then it is difficult to explain the very hot observations at Greenland Ranch during the first half of July 1913, at least from a physical or meteorological perspective.
CAPTION: Highest maximum temperatures observed vs elevation for various sites surrounding Death Valley during the period of July 1-15, 1913.
Annual Absolute Temperature Maximums: Summers of 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, and 1915
At the stations that surrounded Greenland Ranch, the heat wave of July 1913 saw extreme temperature maximums that were near or a few degrees warmer than those of the previous two years (1911 and 1912). In 1913, however, Greenland Ranch jumped up more than ten degrees hotter compared to what was observed there in 1911 and 1912.
CAPTION: Oasis Ranch and Lida had too short a period of record to establish mean temperatures. They are included in the above table because they were among the closest sites to Greenland Ranch that were active during this period. (see map).
Although long-term stations near Death Valley saw hotter absolute maximum temperatures in numerous summers compared to 1913, Greenland Ranch never again came close to its record of 134°F observed on July 10, 1913.
Data Tables
Below are listed the average maximum temperatures and the associated ‘departures from the average daily maximum for July’ for the station at Greenland Ranch compared to other sites in the region during the hottest summertime periods from 1911 to 1960.
The departures are based against averages for the stations’ period of record through 1930, if available:
CAPTION: The above table compares departures from average in maximum temperature between Greenland Ranch/Furnace Creek Ranch and surrounding stations for selected significant summertime hot spells in the region.
The first three columns indicate the dates and length of significant heat waves at Greenland Ranch from 1911 to 1960. The average July temperatures based on the POR of 1911-1930 which was 116.4°F in the case of Greenland Ranch. This is the figure provided in Summary of the Climatological Data for the United States, by Sections, Weather Bureau Bulletin W, 1912, revised and reprinted in 1933. The Western Region Climate Center gives a figure of 115.5°F as the average July maximum temperature at Greenland Ranch for the POR from 1911 to 1960.
The USWB COOP Observer at Death Valley in 1913
In September 1912, Oscar Denton replaced Thomas Osborne as the Greenland Ranch USWB COOP weather station observer. Denton, of San Diego, began signing the USWB COOP forms in September, but the first form with data in his handwriting was December 1912. Denton served as the observer, caretaker, and foreman of the ranch for the Pacific Coast Borax Company until mid-August, 1920. Thus, Denton’s first full summer as the weather observer was the summer of 1913.
For the period of record when Oscar Denton was observer at Greenland Ranch it is important to emphasize just how problematic the climate record for Greenland Ranch became. Here is a good example: For the period from March 16-20, 1913 a warm spell in the Desert Southwest came to a quick end when a cool and windy weather system swept into California and Nevada. A few stations in the Death Valley region reported small amounts of rain around the 18th, and observer notes mentioned very windy conditions on the 17th and 18th at Columbia, Barstow and Las Vegas. Maximum temperatures fell region-wide by about ten degrees from the 17th to the 18th, yet the maximum at Greenland Ranch on both days was constant at 90°F. Although there was generally little change in maximum temperature from the 18th to the 19th at the closest surrounding stations, the maximum at Greenland Ranch jumped up to 95°F on the 19th. Independence had a high of only 56°F on the 19th, and Barstow reached only 62°F. The increase in the maximum temperatures at Greenland Ranch during this cooling trend strongly suggests that Denton was, perhaps, absent from the ranch and that he estimated the temperatures for the time he was gone. There were no missing days on the COOP forms during Denton’s tenure.
Conclusions
1) Greenland Ranch temperatures not consistent with meteorological conditions in July 1913
The temperatures reported at Greenland Ranch during the period of hot weather from July 7-14, 1913 were not consistent with meteorological conditions in the region at the time of observation. There is no indication that an exceptional heat wave was occurring in the Southwest U.S. during this period. ‘Isolated hot spots’, whether a result of wind patterns or local geography, cannot account for the exceptional temperatures reported at Greenland Ranch given known meteorology of Death Valley during extreme heat events.
As a footnote to this, it is interesting to quote Mr. George H. Willson (who first reported the record in Monthly Weather Review for June 1915): “The daily weather maps have been carefully studied for some peculiarity that would explain the extremely hot weather in Death Valley in July 1913, but it is doubtful if a sufficient cause was found. The weather type was that which always causes high temperatures over the south Pacific coast district, it was not unusually pronounced, and did not give record temperatures in any other portion of California.” He went on to say, “The condition was probably local as is often the case in mountainous regions, and the exceptionally high temperatures were confined to Death Valley”. We now know that this could not have been the case, since no heat event in Death Valley has ever, in over 100 years of observation, confirmed such a possibility.
2) Lack of correspondence with surrounding weather sites at time of July 1913 observations
The extreme temperature of 134°F measured on July 10, 1913 did not correlate with observations at other sites in the region on this date and likewise for the entire period of the extreme temperature readings reported from Greenland Ranch during the week of July 7-14, 1913. During several other periods during the time that Oscar Denton was the observer at Greenland Ranch temperatures were often, although not always, at odds with the surrounding site observations. Given the maximums at the surrounding stations in July 1913, the atmosphere was never hot enough to support authentic air temperatures as high as 134°F at Furnace Creek in Death Valley. The Greenland Ranch weather station was sited in a very conservative place, a relatively cool place in Death Valley. If the observations of 129°F to 134°F at Greenland Ranch from July 9 to 13 were authentic, then maximums at the closest surrounding stations during that 5-day period would have been substantially hotter than actually observed.
3) Concerns with observer’s experience
Since the record heat at Greenland Ranch from July 7-14, 1913 cannot be explained meteorologically, it is possible that the observer miss-observed the maximum temperatures during that time frame. This may have been the result of his lack of experience as an official USWB observer.
Finally, it is possible to demonstrate that a temperature of 134°F in Death Valley on July 10, 1913 was essentially not possible from a meteorological perspective using an officially sanctioned USWB shelter and thermometer and following proper procedures observationally. Thus, the best explanation for the record high report(s) in July 1913 is either observer or instrumental error.
References/Bibliography
Court, Arnold, 1949: How Hot is Death Valley? Geographical Review, vol. 39, pp. 214–220.
——, 1952: Duration of Very Hot Temperatures Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, vol. 33, pp. 140–149.
——, 1953: Temperature Extremes in the United States Geographical Review, vol. 43, pp. 39–49.
Crampton, F. A., 1956: Deep Enough: A Working Stiff in the Western Mine Camps University of Oklahoma Press.
Eklund, Ernest E., 1933: Some Additional Facts about the Climate of Death Valley, California. Monthly Weather Review. Vol. 61, pp. 33–35.
Greene, L. W., 1981: Death Valley National Monument, Historic Resource Study, A History of Mining, Volume I Parts 1 and 2 Historic Preservation Branch, Pacific Northwest/Western Team, Denver Service Center, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, Denver, Colorado.
Harrington, Mark W., 1892: Notes on the Climate and Meteorology of Death Valley, California Weather Bureau Bulletin No. 1, U.S. Weather Bureau.
Hogg, J. E., September, 1922: Welcome to the Hottest Spot on Earth! Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 101, No. 3, pp. 19-22.
Ludlum, David, 1963: Death Valley Weatherwise, June 1963, pp. 116-117.
McAdie, A. G., 1913: Relative Humidity in Death Valley Monthly Weather Review, vol. 41, p. 931.
Palmer, Andrew, January 1922: <i>Death Valley — The Hottest Known Region</i> Monthly Weather Review, Volume 50, pp. 10-13.
Potter, Sean, Jul/Aug 2010: Retrospect: July 10, 1913: Highest Temperature Ever Recorded in North America Weatherwise Magazine, Vol. 63, No. 4, p. 14.
Reid, William T., 1987: A Critical Analysis of Eastern Mojave Desert Temperatures. Masters Thesis, California State University Northridge, Geography Department (376 pages).
Roof, Steven and Callagan, Charlie, 2003: The Climate of Death Valley Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 84, No.12, pp. 1725-1739.
Stachelski, Chris, 2013: World’s Hottest — 100th Anniversary of the World’s Hottest Recorded Air Temperature.</i> pages 6-7 of PDF document on <a href=https://www.nps.gov/deva/upload/Visitor-Guide-2013-Summer.pdf> this Death Valley National Park web site link.</a>
Stachelski, Chris, and Las Vegas NWS Staff, last updated 2016: Climate of Death Valley, California
Willson, George H., 1915: The Hottest Region in the United States Monthly Weather Review, vol. 43, pp. 278–280, 341.
Williams, Llewelyn, 1967: Climatological Conditions Favoring Occurrence of High Temperatures at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona Technical Report 67-42-ES, U.S. Army Natick Laboratories, Earth Science Division, Geography Branch, Natick, Massachusetts.
About William T. Reid
William T. Reid studied Geography and Climatology at California State University Northridge. Reid received a B.A. and M.A. in Geography/Climatology from CSUN in 1981 and 1987, respectively. His Masters Thesis, “A Critical Analysis of Eastern Mojave Desert Temperatures,” was under the advisement of Dr. Arnold Court and included a detailed scrutiny of the record 134°F report at Greenland Ranch in 1913. Reid has worked as a climatologist and forecaster for a private weather company in Southern California, and has worked as a certified weather observer at several airports in the Los Angeles area since 2004. He currently operates and oversees automatic cooperative weather stations in Chatsworth and at his home in Westlake Village for NWS Oxnard. Reid has studied temperature records in the California deserts and Death Valley region for more than 30 years.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.