Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes in Death Valley National Park.
Temperatures in Death Valley in the U.S. skyrocketed to a blistering 130°F (54.4-degree Celsius) on Sunday. Possibly, it is the highest mercury reading on Earth since 1913.
If the National Weather Service’s recording is correct, it would also be among the top-three highest temperatures to have ever been measured in Death Valley, as well as the highest temperature ever seen there during the month of August.
The temperature in Death Valley hit 130°F at 3:41 p.m. Sunday, the National Weather Service said in a tweet.
Death Valley is the lowest, driest and hottest location in the U.S. Furnace Creek, where its temperature is measured, sits at 190 feet below sea level in the Mojave Desert of southeastern California. It is notorious for its blistering heat. In July 2018, its average temperature of 108.1°F represented the hottest month ever measured on the planet. During that month, it hit at least 120 degrees on 21 days.
The high registered in Death Valley, California reached 130° yesterday. Once verified the records will include: hottest August day, hottest since 1913, and potentially the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth.
Death Valley holds the record for the highest temperature ever recorded on the planet: 134°F in 1913, according to Guinness World Records. That reading has been disputed, however.
Some climatologists consider 129-degree readings recorded in Death Valley on June 30, 2013, and in Kuwait and Pakistan in 2016 and 2017, respectively, as the highest ever reliably measured on the planet. If only those readings are considered, then Sunday’s 130°F temperature would unseat them as the highest measured.
However, that measurement is very much in question; an extensive analysis of that record conducted in 2016 by Christopher Burt, an expert on extreme weather data, concluded it was “essentially not possible from a meteorological perspective.”
Since then, a 129-degree reading was recorded in Death Valley in 2013.
The reading comes amid an epic heat wave that continues to grip most of the southwestern U.S.
“Everything I’ve seen so far indicates that is a legitimate observation,” Randy Cerveny, who leads the World Meteorological Organization’s weather and climate extremes team, wrote in an email. “I am recommending that the World Meteorological Organization preliminarily accept the observation. In the upcoming weeks, we will, of course, be examining it in detail, along with the U.S. National Climate Extremes Committee, using one of our international evaluation teams.”
Multiple daily heat records were set Saturday. The National Weather Service reported a high of 112°F in Woodland Hills, breaking the record of 108 set in 1977, and a high of 92°F at UCLA, breaking the record of 90°F set in 2003. Downtown Los Angeles hit 98°F, tying a record set in 1994.
Typically, such blazing heat records happen in July — the Northern Hemisphere’s hottest month — which makes Sunday’s 130°F reading stand out.
The scorching temperature occurred amid a suffocating heat wave that has gripped the western U.S. since late last week, and is forecast to continue into the coming week.
On Friday, Oakland, Calif., hit 100°F for the first time on record in August, while Phoenix tied its highest temperature for the month: 117°F.
Then on Saturday, Needles, in California’s southeastern desert, soared to 123°F, its highest August temperature on record.
Sacramento rocketed to 112 degrees Sunday, topping its previous August record of 110.
As it stands, if Sunday’s 130°F reading is confirmed, it would be the world’s highest temperature officially recorded since 1931, and the third-highest since 1873. The only two higher measurements include the disputed 1913 Death Valley reading and a 131°F reading from Kebili, Tunisia, set July 7, 1931, which is considered to be Africa’s hottest temperature. But the Tunisia mark also has “serious credibility issues,” according to Burt.
Fire tornadoes
The heat has intensified a rash of fires that have erupted in recent days. A blaze in northeastern California, between Redding and Reno, Nev., spawned a swarm of fire tornadoes prompting what is believed to be the first-ever issued fire tornado warning by the National Weather Service.
Scientists have found that the intensity, duration and frequency of heat waves worldwide are increasing due to human-caused climate change. A 2019 study found the planet has entered a “new climate regime” with “extraordinary” heat waves that global warming is worsening.
Climate studies have also concluded that climate change is having a serious effect on wildfire activity in the West and Southwest. The Fourth National Climate Assessment, published by the Trump administration in 2018, warned that climate change had already increased the size of areas burned by wildfires by drying out forests and boosting the availability of wildfire fuel.
The report estimated that the area burned by wildfires in the past decade was twice what it otherwise would have been without climate change, painting a grim picture of the region’s future.
Far-right demonstrators, counter-protesters and police clashed in a number of states in the U.S. The series of clashes between far-right militia, pro-Confederacy groups, and anti-fascist (Antifa) counter-protesters erupted across the U.S. on Saturday.
Mostly peaceful protests against racial injustice have been ongoing for weeks following the death of George Floyd on Memorial Day. Clashes between opposing groups have also occurred. Notably in late July, two opposing, heavily armed militia groups came within a few dozen yards of each of other in Louisville, but avoided violence.
Media reports from the U.S. said on August 16, 2020:
Fights broke out in multiple states Saturday in clashes involving a variety of groups, including the far-right Proud Boys, counter-protesters supporting Black Lives Matter and police officers in riot gear.
The multiple instances of tensions between opposing factions was a departure from the typically peaceful protests against racial inequality that have occurred in recent weekends. But the conflicts reported as of Saturday afternoon have been limited to scattered fights.
Michigan
In Michigan, a planned rally by the alt-right, male-only Proud Boys met with counter protesters, leading to escalating tensions and arrests in Kalamazoo.
The Michigan clash involved the Proud Boys, a group listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) due to their white nationalist memes and affiliations with known extremists, according to the SPLC.
The Anti-Defamation League has called the male-only Proud Boys extremist. The Proud Boys dispute those descriptions.
“A fight occurred, people were fighting, and that’s when we stepped in,” Assistant Chief Vernon Coakley of the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety said of the incident. He did not know exactly how many people were arrested.
A reporter for MLive.com said some of the Proud Boys also used pepper spray on people. The reporter was also detained by police while recording live on Facebook.
The First Congregational Church hosted a gathering of anti-racism counter-protesters.
“The Proud Boys, they not only have hatred for Jewish people and Muslim people, but they’re also very hateful of anybody who doesn’t look like them or act like them,” Rev. Nathan Dannison, the church’s pastor, told local outlet MLive.
The mask-less Proud Boys, who were chanting and waving American, Trump, and Gadsen flags, were later dispersed by police in riot gear.
One Black local reporter who was filming the scenes at the protest was arrested by police but was later let go. Police said, “a few arrests” were made, according to local affiliate WOOD-TV.
Portland
In Portland, a rally by a small group of alt-right demonstrators devolved Saturday as they traded paint balls and pepper spray with counter-protesters.
Four arrests were also made in Portland after a small group of alt-right demonstrators started shooting paintballs at counter-protesters.
Oregon
At the Oregon Capitol in Salem on Saturday, several people with the Black Lives Matter movement were shoved down steps and into a crowd of BLM protesters.
The clash at the Oregon Capitol happened as groups of differing ideologies gathered to protest a wide variety of issues, including pandemic restrictions, human trafficking and racial injustice. But there were no police on hand, and the conflicts were broken up by those participating.
Georgia
In Georgia, hours of mostly peaceful demonstrations escalated in Stone Mountain outside of Atlanta as large numbers of police moved in to disperse the crowds when fights broke out.
At Stone Mountain Park, Georgia — home to the Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial — heavily armed far-right protesters attacked anti-fascist protesters with pepper spray.
Videos on social media showed a small number of heavily armed far-right protesters attacking anti-fascist protesters with pepper spray and yelling at them. Some fistfights also broke out.
At one point, a man with a “Don’t Tread on Me” flag and an assault weapon pointed his gun on the crowd, according to the Daily Beast.
The confrontation prompted police in riot gear and members of the National Guard to disperse the crowd. It is unclear whether any arrests were made.
A far-right paramilitary group called Three Percenters militia initially asked to hold a 2,000-person rally at the park on Saturday but were denied by police.
In preparation, authorities closed off entry points to the monument, suspended bus services, and asked locals to avoid the city center.
Stone Mountain Park is home to the Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial, a giant granite carving that depicts Confederate figures Gen. Robert E. Lee, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson mounted on horseback.
The memorial, which is the largest Confederate monument in the US, has become a point of friction over the years.
Calls for its removal first came after the Charleston church shooting in 2015 but intensified in recent months following the death of George Floyd.
Former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams once called the carving “a blight on our state,” according to the Daily Beast.
Pro-Police protesters clash with BLM demonstrators in Colorado
An earlier report said:
Counterprotesters got involved in a violent confrontation with pro-police supporters at a Back the Blue rally in Fort Collins, Colorado Saturday, which ended with the arrests of three people.
The pro-police attendees said two different groups of counterprotesters – consisting of Black Lives Matter (BLM) supporters and what appeared to be members of Antifa – joined the event. They also claimed a faction from one of those two groups attacked a veteran who was in a wheelchair, according to The Collegian.
Clips featured on a rally goer’s Instagram account showed an all-out melee of various protesters beating one another, as people screamed and cursed while they looked on.
Another attendee can be heard on the video saying, “Keep punching each other in the face but don’t shoot anybody.”
Ciara Wilson, a local high school student who filmed part of the fight, said there were no police to be found as opposing sides battered one another in the grassy ditch.
“Once they get all the way down the street from the police station, it just goes into an all-out brawl in the middle of a grassy pit,” she told The Collegian. “10 to 15 people just piled up on top of each other. Chokeholds, batons, punched in the face all of it, and there were no police.”
A BLM rally had been held at Colorado State University earlier that day. Some of those rally goers went on to the police station to start a counter-protest.
At first, it seemed to be a peaceful conversation between members of the two groups. Once the second group of anti-racism demonstrators – dressed all in black and thought to be Antifa – showed up, things escalated and turned violent.
Witnesses claimed the agitators dressed seemed to bait the pro-police protesters with verbal taunting.
FCPS Public Relations Manager Kate Kimble sent an email to The Collegian saying the “physical disturbances” near the station ended with three arrests and one citation.
The booking report showed two men and one woman were arrested for disorderly conduct. One of the men was also booked for allegedly possessing an illegal weapon, while another was hit with a resisting arrest charge.
“We respect everyone’s right to peacefully assemble to voice their concerns,’ Kimble added. “For the safety of our community, acts of violence, destruction of property and other unlawful behavior will not be tolerated.”
She said an investigation into the matter is “active and ongoing.”
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