July 29, 2022
On June 20, the hottest spot in the world was Abadan, where thermometers bumped up to 52 degrees centigrade (126 degrees Fahrenheit), which is the highest temperature recorded in the city since the weather station there was opened 70 years ago.
Abadan was stuck in the middle of a sizzling heat spell covering Kuwait, southern Iraq and southwestern Iran. Many of the weather stations in the region reported temperatures of 50 degrees centigrade (122 degrees Fahrenheit).
As for the highest temperature ever, in 2012 the World Meteorological Organization recognized the record to be 56.7°C (134°F), which was measured on July 10, 1913, at Greenland Ranch, Death Valley, California.
But then some case studies published in May 2021 by the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society based on measurements taken by satellites determined that the hottest temperatures ever measured were reached multiple times in both Iran’s Lut Desert and Mexico’s Sonoran Desert. The temperatures there topped out at 80.8 degrees centigrade (177.4 F).
As for the latest hot spell in the Middle East, Accuweather, the American weather company, said a band of high pressure allowed an unseasonably hot mass of air to flow directly into Iran, Iraq and Kuwait. This hot air, when combined with blazing sunshine and dry earth, allowed air temperatures near the surface to greatly surpass normal levels.
Accuweather said that while mid- to late-June is one of the hottest times of the year for the Middle East, extreme dryness has compounded issues recently.
Since March, it said, portions of eastern Iraq, southern Iran and much of Kuwait have only recorded between 0.25 and 0.50 of an inch of rainfall. These areas are typically very dry, but rainfall amounts of this level put many locations at less than half the normal rainfall since the beginning of spring.
If there were more moisture available in the topmost layer of soil across the region, Accuweather said, the sun’s rays would have to work to evaporate that moisture first, before working to heat up the air. Without the moisture, radiation from the sun is free to heat the air near the surface directly.
This most recent bout of searing heat comes after a prolonged heat wave earlier in June, when portions of Iran, Iraq and Kuwait sweltered through nearly a week of high temperatures above 49 C (120 F).
In Tehran, the temperature first hit 95 degrees June 5. In the 57 days from then through the end of July, the temperature was 95 or higher on 47 days. The high was 106 on June 28 and 29.