The source shows extreme high and low temperatures for multiple locations in most countries. My hometown is listed (correctly, according to the national meteorological agency) as having an extreme low of -47.8C and an extreme high of 42.2C. I'll guess that it's the largest city that has reached plus- and minus-40 degrees, but I can't be bothered to go down that whole list.
I wonder if they exclude the Danakil because it's influenced by volcanic activity.
If you include places influenced by volcanic activity, where do you draw the line to exclude temperatures inside an actual volcano or hot spring? And if you don't exclude those, even Iceland would beat all of these temperatures.
and seen from an alphabetical point of view it scores very poorly - below even countries we often think of as under achievers such as Gabon or Burkina Faso
That attitude even made them try to buy Greenland, which would make the USA the northernmost country in the world. They would literally be at the top of the world!
Lebanon is a very small country. You've got the coastal areas which have a nice, temperate Mediterranean climate, and then if you head east you very quickly run into mountains where it gets quite cool. Syria is also very hilly and moderate compared to the countries to the south. The scorching desert areas of Israel, Jordan, and Iraq are mostly in the south. Visit Syria or look up pictures and you'll see most of it is green. Not the same geography as the most of the Arabian peninsula.
"Visit Syria or look up pictures and you'll see most of it is green."
False.
The coastal regions of Syria are separated from the rest of the country by a mountain range (just like Lebanon), and those areas are quite green. The rest of the country is semi-arid or arid, though the Euphrates and a few smaller rivers have allowed for some corridors of irrigation in the deserts.
It gets very hot in Syria, with temperatures often surpassing 110F in many regions. It just happens to be that the max recorded temperature is about 120, which isn't quite as hot as the max temps recorded in the lower altitude and lower latitude deserts of many of the other countries on the list.
Fair enough. Maybe I should have said.. "it's more green than you might imagine"? and the fact that it is farther north than most of these countries means it doesn't quite beat out countries like Tunisia or Libya, which have virtually no green areas to speak of.
Those are closer to the equator and wetter. The hottest temperatures are at the horse latitudes (around 30 degrees latitude), which are characterized by high pressure and calm air heats up as it drops. Most deserts are at the horse latitudes. If you take a look at a map, you'll see that virtually all the countries on this list are right around 30 degrees.
Yo. I was IN KUWAIT on the day that pinged the highest recorded temp ever in the Eastern Hemisphere. Just trying to out-process and re-deploy back home in mid-July.
Because it seems to be accurate. I cross-referenced some of the data, and see that it matched with local news reports. Meanwhile, many other sites are still reporting very dubious "records", like the 136 degree temperature in Libya, or 134 in Death Valley. I wish there was a better source, but this is the best one we have. Perhaps you should try to make a better quiz.
A lot of people are are saying they remember the record for hottest temperature being Death Valley or Al Azizia, Libya. Both of these placed did have what was considered the world record temperatures at some point, but on investigation of the data both records have been overturned. If you're really interested you can read an in depth account of the investigations into both of these readings below.
haha. yeah. It's hilarious to me to hear Europeans complain about their brutally hot summer days and when I ask how hot it is they say "it's over 30!" ninja please...
@kalbahamut Anything over 30 degrees might seem hotter to many people in Europe largely due to humidity. I currently live in Britain not too far from the sea and 20 degrees is hot here - not because 20 degrees in and of itself is hot but because the high levels of humidity make the heat almost unbearable. Whereas in a country such as Egypt, which regularly reaches temperatures over 35 degrees but where the air is relatively dry, the heat is far easier to bear.
I used to have an apartment in Bahrain where summer days frequently got up to 40 or 45 degrees celsius and the average year-round humidity was about 75%. So... I'm still not impressed. :P And I don't care how humid it is it's still not going to be more unbearable than those days in Riyadh when you'd walk outside just opening your eyes was literally painful because the heat coming up off the asphalt felt like it could instantly melt your eyeballs out of your head. 20 degrees with 100% humidity would still be almost chilly. 30 with high humidity and a nice breeze like you might experience at the beach in Thailand is pleasant. You guys are weird.
Got 100 percent the first time. Everything on the list was in my mind reasonable answers. Though as continental as Turkmenistan is, it did take me a while. I assume since Iraq, Iran and Pakistan all made the list, I was going to knock out all the "Stans"
Lowest: -67.7
Highest: +34.6
If you include places influenced by volcanic activity, where do you draw the line to exclude temperatures inside an actual volcano or hot spring? And if you don't exclude those, even Iceland would beat all of these temperatures.
*Only gets Turkmenistan in the last 2 seconds of the quiz*
False.
The coastal regions of Syria are separated from the rest of the country by a mountain range (just like Lebanon), and those areas are quite green. The rest of the country is semi-arid or arid, though the Euphrates and a few smaller rivers have allowed for some corridors of irrigation in the deserts.
It gets very hot in Syria, with temperatures often surpassing 110F in many regions. It just happens to be that the max recorded temperature is about 120, which isn't quite as hot as the max temps recorded in the lower altitude and lower latitude deserts of many of the other countries on the list.
(formerly Greenland Ranch),
Death Valley, California
Time left: 1:50/4:00
https://www.wunderground.com/blog/weatherhistorian/world-heat-record-overturneda-personal-account.html
https://www.wunderground.com/blog/weatherhistorian/an-investigation-of-death-valleys-134f-world-temperature-record.html
It has reached about 40 when I've been in Rome before - still a long way to go before it makes the list but that was plenty hot enough
I live in Felixstowe and this last week has been insanely hot, but only registering as ~mid-20's