Pakistan records fourth highest temperature on earth

ISLAMABAD: Following years of tireless investigation, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced that two recent temperature readings have been accepted among the hottest recorded on Earth.

One of the scorching marks came from the Middle East, the other from South Asia. According to the WMO the Mitrabah observation, in the north west of Kuwait, saw temperatures hit 53.9C on July 21, 2016. It is also the highest temperature ever recorded in Asia.

The WMO also confirmed that the fourth highest temperature (53.7C) was noted in Turbat, in southern Balochistan, Pakistan, on May 28, 2017. "The Mitribah, Kuwait temperature is now accepted by the WMO as the highest temperature ever recorded for the continental region of Asia," the organization wrote in a statement.

It continued, "The two observations are the third (tied within uncertainty limits) and fourth highest WMO-recognized temperature extremes. "Both readings are also the highest temperatures recorded on the planet in the past 76 years.

This investigation highlights the fact that we can now conduct extremely in-depth analysis of weather extremes," said Randall Cerveny, chief rapporteur of climate and weather extremes for the WMO. "Rigorous investigations such as this independent temperature sensor calibration give us much higher confidence in our existing climate records, and consequently provide a solid basis for examining records being broken around the world and for studies of attribution of extremes to climate change, he said.

The WMO archive of weather and climate extremes includes the world’s highest and lowest temperatures, rainfall, heaviest hailstone, longest dry period, maximum gust of wind, as well as hemispheric weather and climate extremes, The Weather Channel reported.

Notably, the WMO list of highest global temperatures does not include a 54 deg C recorded in Furnace Creek at Death Valley, California, on June 30, 2013. But there is a reason. That location was even hotter in 1913 when it reportedly hit 56.7 deg C. This temperature is recognised as the hottest recorded on Earth. But some experts question its validity.

It was recently described as "essentially not possible from a meteorological perspective" in a detailed analysis. It is a similar story for the planet's second-highest recognized temperature, which is 55 deg C from Kebili, Tunisia, set July 7, 1931, which also is Africa's hottest temperature. This record has "serious credibility issues," according to Christopher Burt, an expert on extreme weather data.