‘Death Valley Days’ May Be Over for Global Temperature Record – Watts Up With That?

World-record hot temperature may have been incorrectly measured. 

In 1913, a temperature of 134°F (56.7°C) was reported at Greenland Ranch in Death Valley, California — still listed as the hottest air temperature ever recorded on Earth. But this new study by our friends Dr. John Christy and Dr. Roy Spencer argues that the famous record is wrong, and not just by a little. Using more than a century of weather data and historical records, the authors conclude that the 1913 reading was around 14°F too high and should never have been recognized as a world record.

Why the Record Is in Question

Death Valley is certainly one of the hottest places on Earth, but even in today’s warmer climate, it has never again reached 134°F. The highest recent temperatures there — in 2020 and 2021 — peaked at 130°F. This alone raises doubts: if the world has warmed since 1913, why hasn’t the record been broken?

Earlier researchers had also questioned the 134°F value. Meteorologist George Willson noted in 1915 that nothing unusual in the regional weather could explain such extreme heat. Later studies in the 1940s and 1950s found that a temperature that high should occur only once every several centuries, if at all.

To evaluate whether the 1913 reading made sense, the researchers used data from nearby weather stations outside Death Valley that have continuous records from 1923 to 2024. These stations are at higher elevations — typically 3,000 to 3,700 feet above sea level — while Greenland Ranch lies 178 feet below sea level.

Temperature normally drops with altitude. This rate of decrease is called the lapse rate. The team calculated lapse rates from 102 years of July temperature data to determine what the Death Valley temperature should have been based on surrounding stations. They found that in July, the air temperature typically falls by about 4.8°F per 1,000 feet of elevation.

Applying this relationship to the 1913 data, they reconstructed what Death Valley’s true temperature probably was. The result: the 134°F reading should have been closer to 120°F, plus or minus 2°F.

The study didn’t just find one bad measurement. The entire first half of July 1913 looks suspicious. For 17 days, the Greenland Ranch station reported temperatures an average of 8°F higher than what nearby stations would predict. On July 13, a second implausible high of 131°F was recorded.

Other years between 1911 and 1922 also showed odd patterns — especially 1914, 1916, 1917, and 1922. In some years, the daily highs often ended in multiples of five (like 105, 110, 115), suggesting they were being estimated or rounded rather than read directly from a thermometer.

The authors also found that day-to-day variations in those early years were unusually large compared to later decades, a sign of inconsistent or fabricated data.

What Might Have Happened

The paper presents historical clues to explain why the 1913 temperatures were exaggerated. Greenland Ranch, established in the late 1800s to support borax mining, was an isolated oasis amid the desert. By 1911, the U.S. Weather Bureau had installed a proper instrument shelter at the ranch, located over an irrigated alfalfa field. This setup provided reliable readings — but cooler than what ranch workers expected.

Locals were convinced Death Valley should reach over 130°F. They had earlier seen higher numbers on non-standard thermometers hung under the veranda of the ranch house. Those “porch thermometers,” exposed to reflected heat and possibly hot air trapped under the double roof, could easily show inflated temperatures.

Letters from that time show the ranch managers were disappointed that the official Weather Bureau thermometer was reporting “cool” values. The researchers suspect that Oscar Denton, the ranch foreman and official observer from 1912 to 1920, may have replaced some of the official readings with hotter values taken from the veranda thermometer.

The paper gives a vivid picture of how difficult it was to live and work in Death Valley a century ago. Observers were left alone in unbearable summer heat, often without oversight from the Weather Bureau. Denton himself was a recluse who distrusted outsiders and endured dangerous conditions while taking daily measurements. The authors note that no federal official visited the site from its installation in 1911 until 1924 — a 13-year gap when any number of observing mistakes or instrument moves could have occurred unnoticed.

Old photographs show the temperature shelter was moved at least once, possibly to a hotter location away from the irrigated field. These unsupervised changes, combined with the strong local belief that Death Valley was the world’s hottest place, likely encouraged Denton to record unrealistically high numbers.

Comparison with Other Early Records

Earlier reliable measurements in Death Valley — for example, by the Wheeler Survey in 1875 and a U.S. Weather Bureau expedition in 1891 — never exceeded 122°F. These readings were made with properly shielded thermometers similar to those used later at Greenland Ranch. This supports the conclusion that the 134°F value was artificially inflated, not a true reflection of the region’s natural climate.

Conclusion and Recommendations

After analyzing both the data and historical evidence, the authors conclude:

• The true temperature on July 10, 1913 was probably about 120°F, not 134°F.
• The reported value was likely taken from a poorly sited, unstandardized thermometer on the ranch veranda.
• Several years of early Greenland Ranch data show similar inconsistencies and should be re-examined.
• The World Meteorological Organization should rescind the 134°F record and review early Death Valley data for quality control.

The paper’s title — “Death Valley Illusion” — sums it up well. Just as the valley’s early reputation was built on myths of deadly heat and mirages of wealth, the 134°F world record appears to be another illusion — a product of human error, misplaced expectations, and a lack of oversight.

Death Valley Illusion: Evidence Against the 134 °F World Record
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

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