New Temperature Record in Oman? No Sweat

A dangerous heat wave is expected to envelop much of the US over the next few days, but residents in Quriyat, Oman, probably won't have much sympathy. That's because it's so hot there that a new world record was set Tuesday: Per Weather Underground, the city registered a 24-hour low temperature of 108.7 degrees Fahrenheit, the highest temp in that category ever. A weather expert says the previous record for highest minimum temperature in a 24-hour period was also in Oman, on June 27, 2011, at Khasab Airport, which saw a 107.4-degree reading. Live Science notes the daytime temperature on Tuesday in Quriyat was even more brutal, reaching a high of 121.6 degrees. The hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth was 134 degrees, measured in Death Valley, Calif., on July 10, 1913. (More Oman stories.)