Detailing various heat records in western states

The National Weather Service stated early last week that California's Death Valley National Park tied a record high for the month of June of 129 degrees, originally set in 1902 at the former town of Volcano near the Salton Sea. It could take months, however, like an all-time record cold temperature this past winter in Siberia of minus-94 degrees, to verify. (We'll keep our subscribers updated.)

The 129 degree reading, though, was still five degrees shy of the all-time U.S. and world record of 134 degrees set at Greenland Ranch in Death Valley a century ago on July 10, 1913.

I should likewise mention that a disputed world record high temperature of 136 degrees was supposedly set in Libya, North Africa, on Sept. 13, 1922. It never was fully verified by outside meteorological sources.

A Coeur d'Alene Press subscriber asked me this week what the hottest temperature in Australia has been in modern times. My answer is that Oodnadatta in south-central Australia hit 123 degrees on Jan. 2, 1960.

Other all-time record high temperatures include; 129 degrees at Tirat Tsvi, Israel, on June 21, 1942, six weeks after this climatologist's birth on May 6, 1942. The hottest temperature ever recorded in South America was 120 degrees on Dec. 10, 1905, at Rivadavia, Argentina. Europe's warmest reading ever was 122 degrees at Seville, Spain, on Aug. 4, 1881.

State records in the Desert Southwest show that Lake Havasu City holds the Arizona record of 128 degrees set on June 29, 1994. Laughlin, Nev., hit 124 degrees also on June 29, 1994. Las Vegas had a record-tying 117 degrees on Sunday, June 20, 2013, during the most recent record heatwave in the Southwest.

New Mexico's all-time record high was 122 degrees observed on June 27, 1994, at Waste Pilot Pit. St. George, Utah, reached 117 degrees on July 5, 1985. Our record high in Idaho was the 118 degree reading Orofino set on July 28, 1934. Neighboring Washington state's record maximum temperature was likewise 118 degrees observed on Aug. 5, 1961, at Ice Harbor Dam. Pendleton, Ore., set that state's highest reading ever with a scorching 119 degrees on Aug. 10, 1898. The highest reading ever observed in Montana was 117 degrees at Medicine Lake on July 5, 1937.

Locally in Coeur d'Alene, our warmest afternoon ever was the 109 degrees set on Aug. 4, 1961. On July 28, 1939, a weather station downtown logged 108 degrees.

The summer of 1961 was our warmest summer ever in North Idaho. The summers of 1919 and 1939, well prior to so-called manmade global warming, were close behind.

Our prayers go out to the mourning families of the 19 firefighters who lost their lives on June 30 fighting a windblown wildfire north of Phoenix at Yarnell, Ariz., during the recent scorching record heatwave. It was our nation's worst loss of firefighter lives in 80 years since 1933.

As I've said for months now, this current 2013 wildfire season could eventually turn out to be the deadliest on record in the drought-parched western U.S. Once again, only time will tell.

North Idaho weather review and long-range outlooks

Our early summer extremely hot weather peaked last Tuesday when we hit a toasty 99 degrees in Coeur d'Alene at 3:22 p.m. just a degree shy of the record high for July 2 of 100 degrees set back in 1924.

We still haven't seen the mercury hit the century mark locally in nearly four years. I last observed a 100 degree reading on Player Drive on Aug. 20, 2009, shortly before the annual North Idaho Fair and Rodeo. But, there's at least a 60 percent chance that we will see at least one afternoon at or above 100 degrees between now and the end of the third week of August.

We've already seen four 'Sholeh Days' at or above 90 degrees this young summer season, plus a 'rare' heat advisory issued by the National Weather Service for July 1-2.

Longer-term, both Randy Mann and I still see a long, hot summer season dominated by a huge stubborn stationary ridge of high pressure sitting over the Inland Northwest.

We don't see even 'half' of our normal summer precipitation falling during the next three months. Most of these rains will be scattered thunderstorms that will be confined mainly to the mountains to the east of us into western Montana. Please help us avoid those dangerous wildfires when camping in the woods.

Cliff Harris is a climatologist who writes a weekly column for The Press. His opinions are his own. Email [email protected]

Weekly Weather Almanac

• Week's warmest temperature: 99 degrees on July 2

• Week's coldest temperature: 52 degrees on July 7

• Weekly precipitation: 0.00 inches

• Precipitation month to date: 0.00 inches

• Normal precipitation month to date: 0.21 inches

• Precipitation month to date last year: 0.75 inches

• Precipitation year to date: 14.69 inches

• Normal precipitation year to date: 14.16 inches

• Precipitation last year to date: 27.23 inches

• Normal annual precipitation: 26.77 inches

• Total precipitation last year: 43.27 inches

• Precipitation predicted this year: 28.40 inches

• Wettest month on record (since 1895): 9.91 inches in December 1933

• Record annual precipitation: 43.27 inches in 2012

• All-time least annual precipitation: 15.18 inches in 1929

Readings taken week ending Sunday, 4 p.m., July 7