Why is Death Valley the hottest place on Earth? I thought it would be somewhere on the equator.
In: Geology
Low altitude, very dry weather.
Air gets cooler at high altitudes and warmer at low altitudes, which is why you see mountains with snow capped peaks, and Death Valley is 282 feet below sea level (far enough that you could have a 20 story building in Death Valley, and it’s peak would just be at Sea Level), so that helps it get extremely hot.
Additionally, death valley is in the middle of a desert, and there is almost no humidity. Water vapor in the air, tends to make things not as hot in terms of peak temperature, and not as cold in terms of low temperature. Dry desert air on the other hand can have wild temperature swings because the solar energy all goes into changing the temperature (sensible heat) rather than changing the levels of the water in the air (latent heat). There is over a 30 degree temperature swing in Death Valley from night to morning, in other hot, but humid, areas like New Orleans or Houston, that temperature swing is closer to 20 degrees. Bigger temperature swings help with reaching higher high temperatures.
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