the big
picture.
Photo: John Locher/AP/Shutterstock16 | BIGISSUE.COM FROM 24 AUGUST 2020If you’re looking for some hot stuff,
head to the aptly named Furnace
Creek in Arizona’s Death Valley.
It was there that last week, the
highest-ever reliably measured
temperature was recorded: a
blistering 54.4C (129.9F). Furnace Creek
also holds the record for the highest
natural ground surface temperature –
93.9C (201F) in July 1972.
The weather station there was
originally set up in the 1890s by a
mining company extracting borax,
a chemical used in detergents and
cosmetics. Back then, the area was
named Greenland Ranch – and
despite this being the hottest place
on the planet there are still greens
on the local golf course which at 85
metres below sea level means they
have the lowest holes you can sink a
putt in on Earth.
Furnace Creek is popular with
tourists, though signs advise against
going for a walk after 10am.
Closer to home, UK temperatures
this month passed 34C (93.2F) six days
in a row for the first time since records
began. The UK’s hottest temperature
stands at 38.7C (101.7F), reached at
Cambridge Royal Botanic Gardens in
July last year.HOW
GREEN
WAS MY
VALLEY?
the big
picture.
Photo: John Locher/AP/Shutterstock16 | BIGISSUE.COM FROM 24 AUGUST 2020
If you’re looking for some hot stuff,
head to the aptly named Furnace
Creek in Arizona’s Death Valley.
It was there that last week, the
highest-ever reliably measured
temperature was recorded: a
blistering 54.4C (129.9F). Furnace Creek
also holds the record for the highest
natural ground surface temperature –
93.9C (201F) in July 1972.
The weather station there was
originally set up in the 1890s by a
mining company extracting borax,
a chemical used in detergents and
cosmetics. Back then, the area was
named Greenland Ranch – and
despite this being the hottest place
on the planet there are still greens
on the local golf course which at 85
metres below sea level means they
have the lowest holes you can sink a
putt in on Earth.
Furnace Creek is popular with
tourists, though signs advise against
going for a walk after 10am.
Closer to home, UK temperatures
this month passed 34C (93.2F) six days
in a row for the first time since records
began. The UK’s hottest temperature
stands at 38.7C (101.7F), reached at
Cambridge Royal Botanic Gardens in
July last year.HOW
GREEN
WAS MY
VALLEY?