Where Is the Hottest Place on Earth? : Feature Articles. By Michael Carlowicz Design by Robert Simmon April 5, 2012.
In October 2004, ecologist Steve Running visited the Flaming Mountain, a ridge of dark red sandstone on the edge of the Taklimakan Desert and the Tian Shan range. The surface of the mountain is said to reach temperatures of 50 to 80°C (122 to 175°F) in the summer, and a nearby tourist center marks the spot with a huge golden thermometer. It is the hottest place in China, if not the world, or so says the local lore. According to local lore, the Flaming Mountain is the hottest spot in China. After visiting the site, scientists used NASA data to find out for sure. And that got Running thinking: exactly where is the hottest place on Earth? In July 1913, observers in Furnace Creek, California—Death Valley—watched the thermometer reach 56.7°C (134°F) and declared it to be the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth. “Yet most of the places that call themselves the hottest on Earth are not even serious contenders,” says Running. 'Megadroughts’ predicted to ravage the Southwest - SFGate.
Photo: Leah Millis / The Chronicle gallery_thumbnails_show|article-gallery-6078504|article-gallery-6078504|0 gallery_overlay_open|article-gallery-6078504|article-gallery-6078504|0 gallery_overlay_open_thumbs|article-gallery-6078504|article-gallery-6078504|0 Houseboats sit idle in the low water of Lake Oroville with Bidwell Bar Bridge in the back ground near the end of last year when Calif ornia's second-larg est reservoir was close to the 1977 historic low at 26 percent of capacity.
Scientists say the state’s current drought is unrelated to their dire predictions of the “mega droughts” that will plague the end of this century. Houseboats sit idle in the low water of Lake Oroville with Bidwell... A "for sale" sign is partially visible in exposed earth that used to be submerged as part of Lake Oroville with house boats sitting idle in the background Nov. 29, 2014 in Oroville, Calif. A "for sale" sign is partially visible in exposed earth that used... Back to Gallery Current drought unrelated. California Drought Crisis 2014: Massive Groundwater Loss In US West Is Causing Earth's Crust To Lift Like An 'Uncoiled Spring' The drought-stricken U.S.
West is guzzling so much groundwater that the Earth’s crust is starting to “rise up like an uncoiled spring," California scientists said on Thursday. In some places, the Earth has lifted by more than half an inch. Using data points from hundreds of GPS stations, researchers found that nearly 62 trillion gallons of groundwater has disappeared in the past few years, according to the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego. That’s about how much ice is lost from the Greenland ice cap each year because of global warming, the Los Angeles Times noted. Featured news - Study finds early warning signals of abrupt climate change. A new study by researchers at the University of Exeter has found early warning signals of a reorganisation of the Atlantic oceans’ circulation which could have a profound impact on the global climate system.
The research, published today in the journal Nature Communications, used a simulation from a highly complex model to analyse the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), an important component of the Earth’s climate system. It showed that early warning signals are present up to 250 years before it collapses, suggesting that scientists could monitor the real world overturning circulation for the same signals. Global Warming Isn't Causing California Drought? Report Triggers Storm. Natural conditions, not human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases, are the driving force behind California's three-year dry spell, scientists on a federal task force concluded Monday.
But the report came under fire from some experts who said it downplayed other factors that have humanity's fingerprints on them. The evidence suggests a naturally induced "warm patch" of water in the western Pacific helped to create a high-pressure ridge that blocked precipitation from entering California, the experts said at a news conference to release the report.
"We have been able to identify this as a mode of ocean forcing of atmospheric circulation that causes West Coast drought," said Richard Seager, a climate model specialist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. "The report is not dismissive of global warming at all," said Marty Hoerling, a meteorologist at NOAA's Earth System Research Lab.