Hundreds of Western tourists are being drawn to Death Valley National Park even as the region of California known as one of the hottest places on Earth is experiencing a dangerous heatwave that led to a fatal motorcyclist accident over the weekend.
Tourists from France, Spain, Britain, Switzerland and the United States left their air-conditioned rental cars and campervans to take photos of the desolate landscape.
“I was excited about how hot it was,” said Drew Belt of Mississippi, who wanted to stop in Death Valley, the lowest point in the United States, on his way to climbing California’s Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the Lower 48 states.
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. It’s like walking on Mars.”
A tourist poses for a photo in front of a thermometer at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center (Daniel Jacobi II/Las Vegas Review-Journal via The Associated Press)
In a statement, park ranger Mike Reynolds warned visitors that “high temperatures like this can pose a real threat to your health.”
The heatwave that has swept across much of the US has also brought record temperatures to Oregon and is believed to have killed four people in the Portland area. More than 146 million people across the US were under extreme heat warnings on Monday, particularly in western states.
Dozens of locations across the West and Pacific Northwest tied or broke previous heat records over the weekend, a trend that’s expected to continue this week.
The US heatwave comes at a time when global temperatures reached a record 13th consecutive month in June and 12 consecutive months that were 1.5 degrees warmer than before the industrial revolution, according to the European meteorological agency Copernicus.
In Multnomah County, Oregon, where Portland is located, the coroner is investigating four suspected heatstroke deaths recorded on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, authorities said.
According to county officials, three of the people who died were county residents, ages 64, 75 and 84. Heat stroke is also suspected to be the cause of death of a 33-year-old man who was transported to a Portland hospital from outside the county.
In Death Valley National Park, a scorching desert region in eastern California where temperatures hit a record high of 53.3 degrees Celsius on Saturday and Sunday, an unidentified visitor died of heatstroke on Saturday, and another person was taken to hospital, authorities said.
They were among six people who had been riding their motorcycles around the Badwater Basin in the scorching heat. The other four were treated at the scene. A medical helicopter was unable to respond because it is not normally safe to fly in temperatures above 111 degrees Fahrenheit, authorities said.
More extreme temperatures are expected in the near future, with a maximum temperature reaching 54.4°C by mid-week.
Algeria’s Sheikh Mabrouki walks through the Badwater Basin (Daniel Jacobi II/Las Vegas Review-Journal via The Associated Press)
The largest national park outside of Alaska, Death Valley is considered one of the most extreme environments in the world.
The highest officially recorded temperature on Earth is 56.67°C, recorded in Death Valley in July 1913, but some experts dispute that measurement, claiming the actual record is 54.4°C, recorded in July 2021.
“It’s amazing,” Thomas Murzlik of Basel, Switzerland, said of the triple-digit heat. “When you get out of your car it feels like a wave is hitting you, but it’s very dry. It’s not like Europe.”
Across the Nevada desert, Las Vegas recorded a record high temperature of 48.8 degrees Celsius on Sunday.
Extreme heat and prolonged drought in the West are drying out vegetation that can fuel wildfires.
In California, a wildfire in the mountains of Santa Barbara County had grown to more than 34 square miles by Monday night.
More than 1,000 firefighters are battling the Lake Fire, which is under evacuation orders including in areas including Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch, and is only 8% contained.
