On 13 September 1922, a high temperature of 58.0 °C (136.4 °F) was recorded in Al-Aziziyah This was long considered the highest temperature ever measured on Earth, however this record was deemed illegitimate in 2012 after an investigation by the WMO.
The Libyan temperature had been recorded on Sept. 13, 1922, at an Italian army base. It had long stood out as an oddity, even though Libya certainly sees hot temperatures: El Azizia is located about 35 miles southwest of Tripoli, which lies on the Mediterranean coast. The waters would have a tempering influence on temperatures in the area, all of which weren’t nearly as high as the record temperature.
“When we compared his [the thermometer reader’s] observations to surrounding areas and to other measurements made before and after the 1922 reading, they simply didn’t match up,” said team member Randy Cerveny, of Arizona State University, in a statement.
Cerveny and the other members of the international team dug through historical records to evaluate the plausibility of the temperature.
The team was able to find and locate the original log book in which the temperature was recorded. From it and other sources they were able to identify five major problems with the record temperature: it was made a new and untrained observer; it was measured with an instrument that was antiquated even at that time; the observation site wasn’t representative of its surroundings; it didn’t match other temperatures measured in the area; and it didn’t match later temperatures taken at the site.
Credit : Live Science
Picture Credit : Google
