Death Valley National Park may have just reached the hottest temperature on the planet Sunday. What could be the highest temperature ever reliably recorded on Earth - 130F is being verified by the National Weather Service.
In 1913 Death Valley reached an all-time high of 134 degrees, but some meteorologists raise questions to the accuracy of the measuring tools at the time. More recently in 2013 Death Valley reliably reached 129.2F making it the hottest place on earth.
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While that heat doesn’t compare to what we are seeing in Jacksonville. Florida is still on pace maintaining its warmest year on record.
So far, the state is experiencing the hottest average temperatures since records began in 1895.
The streak of heat has placed the state’s average temperature ranking at the highest since 2015, according to data retrieved on Aug. 17 from the Statewide Time Series, Climate at a Glance.
Recent average temperatures in June and July have not been the hottest but rank the 8th warmest during the two month period.
Summer in North Florida has not been as hot as the central and southern half of the state. In fact, Jacksonville’s monthly average in June and July were slightly below normal, but August is trending higher.
It would take a significant cool snap to erase the average pace of heat across the state since it has been so deep-rooted over the past several months.
The first six months of 2020 began with the hottest stretch of average temperatures on record in Florida.
Cities like Fort Myers, Miami, Orlando and West Palm Beach set the pace for record temps through June based on data from the Southeast Regional Climate Center.
Jacksonville barely had a winter season with several back-to-back months warmer than average from December through the end of the season.
South Florida bore the brunt of the excessive heat during the spring and start of summer, helping to drive the state to its highest level on record.
NOAA National Centers for Environmental information records show the heat streak continues the record warm ranking for the state that began in 2019 and say temperatures in Florida have increased about 1°F since the beginning of the 20th century.
While there has been a lack of general daytime warming, the frequency of very warm nights (minimum temperature above 75°F) has risen dramatically in the last two decades.
The number of very warm nights during the first part of the 21st century has nearly doubled when compared to the occurrence of very warm nights in the mid-20th century (1930–1954).