What is five times hotter than the surface of the Sun and is capable of sending a DeLorean back to the future? Apart from the science fiction part, the first thing is true and the answer is … lightning. It is a short-lived phenomenon that, for a fraction of a second, has been found that the air surrounding a lightning bolt heats up to approximately 30,000 ºC, becoming the highest temperature on Earth.
How is it possible that lightning is hotter than the surface of the Sun? There is the key. We have talked about the surface, not the whole Sun. First, it is important to realize that the surface of the sun is actually its coldest layer. If we dive into its core we will find plasma temperatures of approximately 15 million kelvin, approximately 27 million degrees Fahrenheit or 15 million degrees Celsius.
And on the surface?
If what we are looking for is the place on the surface where the heat is the main protagonist, we will find another winner. And there is no other Death Valley National Park -Death Valley- in California (USA).
Death Valley recorded in August 2020 what could be the highest temperature ever reliably recorded on Earth: 54.4 ° C. The recording of the data, verified by the US National Weather Service, occurred in the middle of a heat wave off the west coast of the United States.
Previous heat records
The August 2020 reading was recorded at Furnace Creek in Death Valley but, prior to this, the highest reliably recorded temperature on Earth had been 54 ° C, also in Death Valley, but at in 2013, although some modern climate experts argued that this measurement was probably wrong.
The truth is that the last decade has established itself as the hottest ever recorded and this trend is expected to continue.
Where do temperatures usually skyrocket the most? Let’s see it in this ranking.
Top 10 hottest places in the world
- Death Valley, California, USA – Temperatures reached 54.4 ° C
- Kebili, Tunisia – The highest recorded temperature is believed to have been 55 ° C, recorded in 1931, but this data “has serious credibility problems.”
- Mitribah, Kuwait – A verified temperature record of 54 ° C was established in 2016.
- Turbat, Pakistan: Temperatures reached 53.7 ° C in 2017.
- Dallol, Ethiopia – This town has some of the highest average temperatures in the world for an inhabited place
- Aziziyah, Libya – This city used to hold the record for being one of the hottest places in the world. It can exceed 48 ° C in summer.
- Wadi Halfa, Sudan: June is the hottest month, with highs over 43º
- Dasht-e Lut, Iran: It is one of the hottest places on the planet. A NASA satellite documented surface temperatures in the Lut Desert of up to 71 ° C, the highest temperature ever documented on the Earth’s surface.
- Bandar-e Mahshahr, Khuzestan, Iran – This is believed to be the place with the second highest heat index in the world.
- Ghadames, Libya – A temperature of 55 ° C was recorded here, although the finding is not verified.
