The lowest, driest spot in the United States, Death Valley has been named the hottest place in the world by the World Meteorological Organization.
The long-time record holder for world's hottest place was El Azizia, Libya. An international team of weather experts named Death Valley the hottest, recently, after investigation.
El Azizia held the record at 136.4 degrees on September 13, 1922. Experts now believe that record was off by about 5 degrees as it was set after a reliable observing instrument broke and was replaced with a less reliable type of thermometer.
"Several experts informed the committee that this type of thermometer was more frequently used in private households rather than as official recording instruments," the group reported in a study that was published on Thursday.
The new official highest record occurred on July 10, 1913 in Death Valley at 134 degrees. The average daily high in Death Valley last month was 113 degrees and the hottest day in Death Valley this year was July 11 at 128 degrees.
Randy Cerveny, an Arizona State University professor who was on the Libya committee said to NBC News, "That record was investigated pretty thoroughly by Dr. Arnold Court, a meteorology professor from California, back in the 1940s and determined to be valid."
He added in the study ,"This investigation demonstrates that, because of continued improvements in meteorology and climatology, climate experts can now reanalyze past weather records in much more detail than ever before. The end result is an even better set of climate data for analysis of important global and regional questions involving climate variability and change."
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