Hottest Reliably Measured Temperature On Record For Africa: 124.3F 7/5 At Ouargla, Algeria

[hatrack]

A historic heat wave in northern Africa on Thursday, July 5, brought Africa its hottest reliably measured temperature on record: 124.3°F (51.3°C), at Ouargla, Algeria. Ouargla (population 190,000) is the capital city of Ouargla Province in the Algerian Sahara Desert, at an elevation of 719 feet (219 meters).

The key word here is ‘reliably’. Many hotter temperatures have been reported in Africa during the colonial period—including the official African record of 131°F (55.0°C) at Kebili, Tunisia on July 7, 1931—but all of these hotter temperatures have serious credibility issues, as explained by wunderground weather historian Christopher C. Burt below. According to weather records researcher Maximiliano Herrera, the previous all-time African record for reliably measured maximum temperature was 123.3°F (50.7°C) on July 13, 1961 at Semara, Western Sahara. His research shows that the hottest temperature reliably measured in Kebili, Tunisia was 119.3°F (48.5°C) in July 2005, with the second highest reliably measured temperature coming this Thursday, at 118.8°F (48.2°C)--a far cry from the official record of 131°F (55.0°C)!

Bogus African temperature records from the colonial period

According to a 2016 post by Mr. Burt, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recognizes a figure 131°F (55.0°C) at Kebili, Tunisia on July 7, 1931 as the official Africa heat record. In addition, there have been many other hotter readings than Thursday’s 51.3°C measurement in Algeria. All of these hotter measurements were made at/by French or Italian military outposts during the pre-1950 colonial period, and are not reliable. The most notorious of these was the 136.4° (58.0°C) reading from September 13, 1922 at Al Azizia, Libya, which stood as the world-record hottest temperature for 90 years. After a years-long official WMO investigation, prompted by the doubts of Mr. Herrera and Mr. Burt about the measurement, this record was cast down in 2012. A similar investigation would have to be done on the official African record of 131°F (55.0°C) at Kebili, Tunisia on July 7, 1931 in order to overturn it. Here, then, is a summary of Mr. Burt’s notes on bogus African temperature records:

EDIT

https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/Africas-Hottest-Reliably-Measured-Temperature-Record-1243F-Thursday-Algeria

[procon]

1. How can human beings survive in that heat?

I must be horrible for babies and young children, the elderly and the sick and the poor won't do well. A few years a ago it was 111 at my house in the Mojave Desert in So Calif, the hottest day in memory, but we had air conditioning keeping us humans and our furbabies at a comfortable 77. I can't imagine the heat impact on those people at 124, just opening the front door was like a blast from a raging fire and made me take an involuntary step backwards, shielding my face.