List of weather records
This is a list of weather records, a list of the most extreme occurrences of weather phenomena for various categories. Many weather records are measured under specific conditions—such as surface temperature and wind speed—to keep consistency among measurements around the Earth. Each of these records is understood to be the record value officially observed, as these records may have been exceeded before modern weather instrumentation was invented, or in remote areas without an official weather station. This list does not include remotely sensed observations such as satellite measurements, since those values are not considered  official records. Temperature. Measuring conditions. The standard measuring conditions for temperature are in the air, to above the ground, and shielded from direct sunlight intensity (hence the term, "x" degrees "in the shade"). The following lists include all officially confirmed claims measured by those methods. Temperatures measured directly on the ground may exceed air temperatures by . The highest natural ground surface temperature ever recorded may have been an alleged reading of at Furnace Creek, California, United States on 15 July 1972. In recent years a ground temperature of has been recorded in Port Sudan, Sudan. The theoretical maximum possible ground  surface temperature has been estimated to be between for dry, darkish soils of low thermal conductivity. Satellite measurements of ground temperature taken between 2003 and 2009, taken with the MODIS infrared spectroradiometer on the Aqua satellite, found a maximum temperature of , which was recorded in 2005 in the Lut Desert, Iran. The Lut Desert was also found to have the highest maximum temperature in 5 of the 7 years measured (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009). These measurements reflect averages over a large region and so are lower than the maximum point surface temperature. Satellite measurements of the surface temperature  of Antarctica, taken between 1982 and 2013, found a coldest temperature of on 10 August 2010, at . Although this is not comparable to an air temperature, it is believed that the air temperature at this location would have been lower than the official record lowest air temperature of . Hottest. Highest temperatures ever recorded. According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the highest temperature ever recorded was on 10 July 1913 in Furnace Creek (Greenland Ranch), California, United States, but the validity of this record is challenged as possible problems with the reading have since been discovered. Christopher C. Burt, a  weather historian writing for Weather Underground, believes that the 1913 Death Valley reading is "a myth", and is at least too high. Burt proposes that the highest reliably recorded temperature on Earth could still be at Death Valley, but is instead recorded on 30 June 2013. This is lower than a 1931 record of recorded in Kebili, Tunisia and is matched by a 1942 record of from Tirat Zvi, Israel. 2016 and 2017 readings in Kuwait and Iran have also matched the 2013 Death Valley record, while readings in 2020 and 2021 also at Furnace Creek went even higher, up  to 54.4 °C (129.9 °F/130 °F), however, they have not yet been validated by WMO. The WMO has stated they stand by the 1913 record pending any future investigations. The former highest official temperature on Earth, , measured in 'Aziziya, Libya on 13 September 1922, was reassessed in July 2012 by the WMO which published a report that invalidated the record. There have been other unconfirmed reports of high temperatures, but these temperatures have never been officially validated by national weather services/WMO, and are currently considered to have been recorder's errors, thus not being recognised as  world records.