Six degrees of separation. Six points on the Fahrenheit temperature scale that made the difference between a flock of visitors to Death Valley experiencing the hottest day in history two weeks ago and just a really, really unpleasantly hot day.
Summer is always hot in Death Valley. The hottest day in history was recorded on July 10, 1913, when the thermometer at Death Valley’s aptly named Furnace Creek reached 134 degrees. Before Death Valley celebrated that milestone again recently, buzz started building during the last week of June that the final weekend of the month might be one for the record books.
Kevin Martin, a meteorologist and blogger, forecast on a community news website serving Beaumont and Banning, Calif., that the record for the hottest day in history would fall. He packed his gear and headed toward Death Valley’s Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level. Martin calculated that it was 2 degrees warmer there than at any given time at Furnace Creek.
Soon, the forecast was tweeted, retweeted, liked and posted across the digital universe.
But the weather refused to play along.
The sun teased and taunted the gathered throng on June 28. The mercury passed 100 by early morning and climbed: 105, 110, 115, 120, 125 . . . then slowed. At Furnace Creek, the ticks on the big digital thermometer moved at a glacial pace. It hit 126, 127, 128.
Where it stopped is the source of debate. Some say 129. Some say above 130, which would make it the hottest June day in U.S. history. The next day was about the same.
Martin drove into Badwater Basin, a blindingly white salt flat 35 miles from anything approaching civilization. He posted pictures online showing his temperature meter hitting 135.5 on July 1 at Badwater Basin.
But government meteorologists said only numbers from official weather stations count. It never got above 129 degrees at Furnace Creek.
Bottom line: no record. At least not at Furnace Creek.
So Death Valley National Park won’t have to cancel its centennial celebration of the hottest day in history.