Informed Comment Homepage

Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Header Right

  • Featured
  • US politics
  • Middle East
  • Environment
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Energy
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • About
  • Archives
  • Submissions

© 2025 Informed Comment

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Climate Change
Maybe Oil was a bad Idea: Temps in Mideast Beat Heat Records for E. Hemisphere

Maybe Oil was a bad Idea: Temps in Mideast Beat Heat Records for E. Hemisphere

contributors 07/24/2016

Tweet
Share
Reddit
Email

By Deirdre Fulton, staff writer | Commondreams.org ) – –

“I’ve never seen Celsius temps like these on a weather map before,” climate scientist Michael Mann said on Twitter.

Thermometers in Kuwait and Iraq reached record-shattering temperatures this week, with Weather Underground reporting that the measurements could be the hottest ever seen in the Eastern Hemisphere.

According to Weather Underground‘s Jeff Masters, the temperature in Mitribah, Kuwait climbed to an “astonishing” 54°C (129.2°F) on Thursday. And on Friday, Basrah, Iraq International Airport reported a high temperature of 53.9°C (129°F).

“Today’s high in Basrah is the second highest reliably measured temperature in world recorded history outside of Death Valley, California,” Masters wrote. “Only yesterday’s 54°C (129.2°F) at Mitribah, Kuwait was hotter.”

Yet another “apocalyptic” heat wave hits the Middle East, #climatechange https://t.co/cKzXA1Bqzq pic.twitter.com/USPLtGBTzC

— Climate Signals (@ClimateSignals) July 22, 2016

“I’ve never seen Celsius temps like these on a weather map before,” climate scientist Michael Mann said on Twitter.

The Washington Post notes, “It’s also possible that these 129.2-degree readings match the hottest ever reliably measured anywhere in the world.”

The Post‘s Jason Samenow explains:

Death Valley currently holds the record for the world’s hottest temperature of 134.1 degrees (56.7 Celsius), set July 10, 1913. But Weather Underground’s [Christopher] Burt does not believe it is a credible measurement: “[T]he record has been scrutinized perhaps more than any other in the United States,” Burt wrote. “I don’t have much more to add to the debate aside from my belief it is most likely not a valid reading when one looks at all the evidence.”

If you discard the Death Valley record from 1913, the pair of 129.2-degree readings from Mitribah and Basra over the past two days would tie the world’s highest known temperature, also observed in Death Valley on June 30, 2013, and in Tirat Tsvi, Israel, on June 22, 1942. But Masters says the Israeli measurement is controversial.

The Middle East is expected to get a respite from the current heat wave on Saturday, according to Weather Underground, when “the ridge of high pressure bringing the record heat will weaken, bringing temperatures about 10°F cooler to Iraq and Kuwait, and about 2-4°F cooler to Iran”—which was expected to break or come close to its own heat records on Friday.

A study published earlier this year in the journal Climatic Change predicted that by the end of this century, “climate change and increasing hot weather extremes in the [Middle East and North Africa], a region subject to economic recession, political turbulence and upheaval, may exacerbate humanitarian hardship and contribute to migration.”

The U.S. is also in the middle of a heat wave, with the National Weather service having issued heat alerts for more than 20 central, southwest, and eastern states.

Via Commondreams.org

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License

—-

Related video added by Juan Cole:

MIT from last year: “Climate change could bring deadly heat to Persian Gulf”

Filed Under: Climate Change, Desertification, Extreme Weather, Middle East

Primary Sidebar

Support Independent Journalism

Click here to donate via PayPal.

Personal checks should be made out to Juan Cole and sent to me at:

Juan Cole
P. O. Box 4218,
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2548
USA
(Remember, make the checks out to “Juan Cole” or they can’t be cashed)

STAY INFORMED

Join our newsletter to have sharp analysis delivered to your inbox every day.
Warning! Social media will not reliably deliver Informed Comment to you. They are shadowbanning news sites, especially if "controversial."
To see new IC posts, please sign up for our email Newsletter.

Social Media

Bluesky | Instagram

Popular

  • Israel's Netanyahu banks on TACO Trump as he Launches War on Iran to disrupt Negotiations
  • Iran's Hypersonic Missiles Hit Israeli Refinery, Military Sites, as Israel does the same to Tehran
  • A Pariah State? Western Nations Sanction Israeli Cabinet Members
  • Israel: Will Ultra-Orthodox Jews' Opposition to Conscription Bring down Netanyahu's Gov't
  • Will Iran reply to Israeli Attacks with "War of Attrition?" Will its Nuclear Red Line Hold?

Gaza Yet Stands


Juan Cole's New Ebook at Amazon. Click Here to Buy
__________________________

Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires



Click here to Buy Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam


Click here to Buy The Rubaiyat.
Sign up for our newsletter

Informed Comment © 2025 All Rights Reserved