Sure, it was hot across the Los Angeles region, but was it Death Valley hot?
The national park, famous for being one of the hottest places on the planet, set a new record for the hottest September day anywhere on the planet when its Furnace Creek thermometer hit 127 degrees on Thursday.
While the heat may send people seeking shade at a, say, a Los Angeles-area golf course, it actually draws the tourists to Death Valley, where scorching temperatures can sometimes surprise them.
“The ground heats up, we’ve measured temperatures of 201 as far as ground temperatures. The ground is then radiating heat back up into the air,” Death Valley National Park spokeswoman Abby Wines said.
But the heat wave is just in its third day Friday, and is expected to last through Labor Day, so setting another record is still a possibility. However, it’s unlikely the park will break the record for the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth – 134 degrees recorded in Death Valley on July 10, 1913.
The record-breaking heat comes less than a month after monsoon rain caused flash flooding in Death Valley National Park, severely damaging several roads.