Page 4 - aruba-today-20230717

A4 U.S. NEWS
Monday 17 July 2023

California’s Death Valley sizzles as brutal heat wave continues

By SETH BORENSTEIN and with triple-digit days and in 1913 in Death Valley and
ADAM BEAM little nighttime relief. 131 degrees (55 degrees
Associated Press Heat records are being Celsius) in Tunisia in July
Long the hottest place on shattered all over the U.S. 1931. Burt, a weather histo-
Earth, Death Valley put a South, from California to rian for The Weather Com-
sizzling exclamation point Florida. But it’s far more pany, finds fault with both
Sunday on a record warm than that. It’s worldwide of those measurements
summer that is baking near- with devastating heat hit- and lists 130 degrees in July
ly the entire globe by flirting ting Europe, along with 2021 in Death Valley as his
with some of the hottest dramatic floods in the U.S. hottest recorded tempera-
temperatures ever record- Northeast, India, Japan ture on Earth.
ed, meteorologists said. and China. “130 degrees is very rare if
Temperatures in Death For nearly all of July, the not unique,” Burt said.
Valley, which runs along A man walks on a pathway Tuesday, July 11, 2023, in Death world has been in unchart- In July 2021 and August
part of central California’s Valley National Park, Calif. ed hot territory, according 2020, Death Valley re-
border with Nevada, were Associated Press to the University of Maine’s corded a reading of 130
forecast to reach 128 de- tion’s records coordinator, weekend. Four people Climate Reanalyzer. degrees (54.4 degrees Cel-
grees (53.33 degrees Cel- said in an email. “Long- died in Pennsylvania on June was also the hottest sius), but both are still await-
sius) on Sunday at the aptly term: Global warming is Saturday when heavy rains June on record, according ing confirmation. Scientists
named Furnace Creek, the causing higher and more caused a sudden flash to several weather agen- have found no problems
National Weather Service frequent temperature ex- flood that swept away mul- cies. Scientists say there is a so far, but they haven’t fin-
said. tremes. Short-term: This par- tiple cars. Three other peo- decent chance that 2023 ished the analysis, NOAA
The hottest temperature ticular weekend is being ple, including a 9-month- will go down as the hottest climate analysis chief Russ
ever record was 134 de- driven by a very very strong old boy and a 2-year-old year on record, with mea- Vose said.
grees (56.67 degrees Cel- upper level ridge of high girl, remained missing. In surements going back to There are other places simi-
sius) in July 1913 at Furnace pressure over the Western Vermont, authorities were the middle of the 19th cen- lar to Death Valley that may
Creek, said Randy Ceverny U.S.” concerned about land- tury. be as hot, such as Iran’s Lut
of the World Meteorologi- On Sunday in Death Valley, slides as rain continued af- Death Valley dominates Desert, but like Death Val-
cal Organization, the body meteorologists were track- ter days of flooding. global heat records. In the ley are uninhabited so no
recognized as keeper of ing high clouds in the area Death Valley’s brutal tem- valley, it’s not only hot, it one measures there, Burt
world records. Tempera- that could keep tempera- peratures come amid a stays brutally warm. said. The difference was
tures at or above 130 de- tures in check. blistering stretch of hot Some meteorologists have someone decided to put
grees (54.44 degrees Cel- “The all-time record seems weather that has put disputed how accurate an official weather station
sius) have only been re- fairly safe today,” said Matt roughly one-third of Ameri- Death Valley’s 110-year-old in Death Valley in 1911, he
corded on Earth a handful Woods, a meteorologist cans under some type of hot-temperature record said.
of times, mostly in Death with the National Weather heat advisory, watch or is, with weather historian A combination of long-term
Valley. Service’s Las Vegas office, warning. Las Vegas also Christopher Burt disputing human-caused climate
“With global warming, such which monitors Death Val- faced the possibility of it for several reasons, which change from the burning
temperatures are becom- ley. reaching an all-time record he laid out in a blog post a of coal, oil and natural gas
ing more and more likely to The heat wave is just one temperature on Sunday, few years ago. is making the world hotter
occur,” Ceverny, the World part of the extreme weath- while residents from Sacra- The two hottest tempera- by the decade, with ups
Meteorological Organiza- er hitting the U.S. over the mento to Phoenix grappled tures on record are the 134 and downs year by year.q

Earthquake off the Alaska coast triggers brief tsunami advisory,

sending some residents to shelters

By The Associated Press media post that the earth- There were an estimated
A 7.2 magnitude earth- quake occurred 106 kilo- eight aftershocks in the
quake triggered a brief tsu- meters (65.8 miles) south of same area of Alaska, in-
nami advisory for southern Sand Point, Alaska, at 10:48 cluding one measuring 5.0
Alaska late Saturday, but p.m. Saturday. The quake magnitude within three
the advisory was canceled initially was reported as 7.4 minutes of the original
about an hour later, moni- magnitude but downgrad- earthquake, KTUU-TV re-
toring bodies reported. ed to 7.2 soon after. ported.
The earthquake was felt The U.S. National Weather Residents were advised not
widely throughout the Aleu- Service sent a tsunami ad- to reoccupy hazard zones
tian Islands, the Alaskan visory saying the quake without clearance from lo-
Peninsula and Cook Inlet occurred at a depth of 13 cal emergency officials,
regions, according to the miles (21 kilometers). The KTUU reported.
Alaska Earthquake Center. agency cancelled the ad- Small sea level changes
In Kodiak, Alaska, sirens visory about an hour after This file photo provided by Andy Varner, city administrator for were still possible, KTUU re-
Sand Point, Alaska, shows the city’s harbor on June 7, 2016.
warned of a possible tsuna- the first alert. Associated Press ported.
mi and sent people driving Before the cancellation, Alaska experiences thou-
to shelters late at night, ac- the National Weather Ser- Unimak Pass, but Kodiak Is- Management Agency said sands of earthquakes each
cording to video posted to vice in Anchorage, Alaska, land and the Kenai Penin- shortly after the tsunami year, most of which are too
social media. tweeted that the tsunami sula were not expected to warning went out that deep and too small to be
The United States Geologi- advisory applied to coastal be impacted. there was no threat to the felt.q
cal Survey wrote in a social Alaska from Chignik Bay to The Hawaii Emergency islands.