My family is interested in traveling to Death Valley later this month, insisting it’s not very hot there yet. I think it’s already beastly hot. Where can I find historical weather information to settle the argument?
Few places in North America are hotter than Death Valley, California, which holds the record for the hottest location – and hottest recorded temperature, a mind-bending 134ºF – in the United States of America. Whether it’s mid-summer, late summer, or a few days prior to the summer solstice, odds are better that it’s going to be dehydratingly hot than cool or balmy!
Still, I appreciate your approach of using historical data to make your point rather than just pointing to the weather forecast (today’s forecast has it getting up to 116ºF in Death Valley). You can find short-term historical weather data, but if you want something across the last decade or longer, there are fewer options…
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE
My favorite weather source is the National Weather Service, which receives funding from the government to maintain an extensive array of sensors throughout all fifty states. No ads, no membership, no subscriptions, just go to forecast.weather.gov and type in the location.
Notice its weather sensor is at Furnace Creek within Death Valley National Park, though the local office is in Las Vegas, Nevada, about 140 miles away. Look closely on the NWS forecast page and you’ll notice that it offers some historical data:
Click on “3 Day History” and you can actually stretch it out and get 7 days of weather data:
The fact that the temperature axis goes up to 125º is a bit overwhelming, but… presumably your family really enjoys hot weather. Still, this is just seven days of data. What about more historical information?
THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND
Another excellent source for weather information is the Weather Underground. Go to wunderground.com and enter the location to get a forecast:
Notice I’m specifying Death Valley, but it turns out that the Weather Underground doesn’t have a sensor there so it’s reporting Las Vegas instead. I can request historical weather information by choosing “Historical Weather” from the “More” menu…
The result shows the temperature through the month of June, 2023.
Here we’re seeing North Las Vegas data, but it’s pretty close. Maybe add +5º to compensate. Scroll down and you’ll get min/max/average temperature for the time window specified too:
But there’s a better way to glean the information you want…
MICROSOFT COPILOT TALKS ABOUT THE WEATHER
Turns out that this sort of large scale data analysis is exactly what generative AI excels at performing, so instead of doing all the work myself, I can instead ask Microsoft Copilot:
Since it analyzes what you type, your prompt doesn’t have to be exactly like mine or even ask for information in the same order. The results are lightning quick and quite informative:
Not sure you trust these newfangled AI systems? One great thing about Copilot is that it lists the sources that it’s used for its response, clickable URLs you can investigate yourself:
It even has a friendly invitation for you to chat and glean more specific information about Death Valley.
One thing’s for sure: While it might just be hot if you visit Death Valley National Park in June, odds are good that it’s going to be ridiculously, swelteringly, tarmac-meltingly hot. Maybe September…?
Pro Tip: While you’re here, please do check out more of my thousands of helpful tutorials by visiting my Computer Basics Help Library? I also have lots of how-to material if you’re learning AI too, in my ChatGPT and AI Help Library.
Don’t come to UK it’s still like winter …