Death Valley, California, is known as "the hottest place on earth." But, if you hear the news that the "Hottest Place on Earth Has Record-Breaking Hot June"--when "temperatures exceeded average June temperatures by about 6 °F"--it might be easy to ascribe the heat to alarmist claims of climate change. While Southern California was experiencing power outages due to a heat wave, Death Valley hit 126 °F--though the previous June high was 129 °F on June 30, 2013, and Death Valley holds the highest officially recorded temperature on the planet: 134 °F on July 10, 1913.
Yes, it is a hot summer for most of the U.S.--but that was predicted by WeatherBELL's Joe Bastardi who, on Ground Hog Day, referenced El Niño and said: "we may have the hottest summer since 2012." Dr. Roy Spencer, Principal Research Scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, explains: "it is usually the second calendar year of an El Niño event that is the warmest." The current El Niño event made 2015 "the 3rd warmest year in the satellite record"--records, which have been kept for 38 years (all three of the hottest years were during an El Niño event). The 2015-16 El Niño is one of the strongest on record.
