El Azizia, The Small Libyan Town Once Known As The Hottest Place In The World
Wikimedia CommonsThe Libyan Desert, home of El Azizia, has recorded some of the hottest temperatures in the world.
Before Death Valley became known as the hottest place on Earth, that record belonged to the small town of El Azizia, Libya.
On September 13, 1922, a temperature of 136.4 Fahrenheit was recorded at an Italian army base there. This was considered the hottest temperature ever recorded for decades, and El Azizia was named the hottest place on Earth. But in the 21st century, this record was questioned.
The World Meteorological Organization began to look into the claim in 2010, an investigation that was periodically interrupted by political unrest in the region. They found that there had been problems with the measurement.
The American Meteorological SocietyAs seen here in 1923, El Azizia was long considered the hottest place on Earth, until its record-setting high temperature was debunked.
The 1922 measurement had been made by an untrained observer, it had been measured with an antiquated instrument (considered antiquated even in 1922), the measurement had been made over asphalt, which wasn’t representative of the desert surrounding it, and it didn’t match other temperatures in the area or other temperatures later taken at the same site.
In 2012, the record for hottest place was taken away from El Azizia — and given to Death Valley.
That said, El Azizia is still one of the hottest places in the world. The average daily temperature in the town during its hottest part of the year — from May through September — is a sizzling 92 degrees Fahrenheit.
