California’s Death Valley sizzles as brutal heatwave continues

DEATH VALLEY, California. (AP):

Long the hottest place on Earth, Death Valley put a sizzling exclamation point yesterday on a record warm summer that is baking nearly the entire globe by flirting with some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded, meteorologists said.

Temperatures in Death Valley, which runs along part of central California's border with Nevada, reached 128 degrees Fahrenheit (53.33 degrees Celsius) on yesterday at the aptly named Furnace Creek, the National Weather Service said.

The hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth was 134 F (56.67 C) in July 1913 at Furnace Creek, said Randy Ceverny of the World Meteorological Organization, the body recognised as keeper of world records.

Temperatures at or above 130 F (54.44 C) have only been recorded on Earth a handful of times, mostly in Death Valley.

"With global warming, such temperatures are becoming more and more likely to occur," Ceverny, the World Meteorological Organization's records coordinator, said.