Despite the heat wave in Death Valley, the tourists are flocking

The tourists come despite the fact that Dødsdalen is being punished with a dangerous heat wave. French, Spanish, English and Swiss tourists get out of refrigerated rental cars to photograph the magnificent landscape. Americans love the untouched nature of the landscape, despite national park rangers warning visitors to protect themselves from the heat.

– I am thrilled that it is so warm. You don’t experience this more than once in your life. Like walking on Mars, says a man from Tuledo, to the AP news agency. He stopped where Death Valley is also the lowest point in the United States.

Park ranger Mike Reynolds warns visitors that such high heat as parts of the western United States are currently experiencing can be dangerous to health. The strong heat wave has set new heat records in Oregon.

12 months straight

In Portland, authorities believe the heat to be the cause of four deaths. On Monday, 146 million Americans were in areas where the heatwave alert has gone out.

The early heat wave comes on top of June being record hot for the thirteenth month in a row. The measurements marked the twelfth consecutive month in which the globe’s temperature was 1.5 degrees warmer than pre-industrial times, according to the European climate service Copernicus.

Portland set new heat records on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The meteorologists still expect high temperatures in the future. But the heat is not expected to be as high as during a similar heat wave in the Pacific Northwest in 2021 that killed an estimated 600 people in Oregon, Washington and western Canada.

Too hot for helicopter

In Death Valley National Park, temperatures as high as 53.3 degrees Celsius were measured last Sunday. One of the visitors to the park died and another person ended up in hospital.

They were among six motorcyclists who rode through the Badwater Basin area in extreme heat, the park said in a statement. The other four were treated at the scene. Emergency helicopters might not be dispatched because they generally cannot fly safely in temperatures above 48.8 Celsius, officials said.

Earth’s warmest place

Death Valley is the largest national park in the United States outside of Alaska. It is considered one of the most extreme environments in the world.

The highest temperature ever officially recorded on Earth was 56.67 degrees in July 1913 in Death Valley, although some experts dispute that measurement. They say the real record 54.4 degrees was recorded there in July 2021.

– The heat is impressive. It’s like a wave of heat hits you when you get out of the car. It is a very dry heat. This is not the case in Europe, says the Swiss tourist Thomas Mrzliek to AP.

Forest fire

In California, a forest fire in the mountains of Santa Barbara County grew to more than 88 square kilometers in a short time. More than 1,000 firefighters battled the flames. The Neverland ranch, which once belonged to the late pop star Michael Jackson, is within the area that has received evacuation orders.

A small but smoky blaze, dubbed the Royal Fire, burned through more than 200 acres of forest west of Lake Tahoe and sent ash falling over the tourist town of Truckee, California.

– It is definitely warmer than we are used to, says a spokesperson for Nevada State Parks, Tyler Kerver.