Four rows of mountain ranges separate Death Valley from the ocean, where storms form and travel west over land. Moisture-laden air that travels upward along the western slopes condenses and falls as rain; hardly anything gets through to the valley. The lack of precipitation also means little plant cover to shade the ground from the desert sun. Although cool in the winter, summer temperatures in Death Valley frequently reach into the extremes.

On this day, July 10, in 1913, Death Valley reached the highest temperature on record, 134° F. Already a furnace in July, Death Valley’s record-breaking heat on that day was amplified by a hot wind from the Nevada desert. The world record stood for nine years until broken, by two degrees, in Libya.

Death Valley was not always a heat cauldron: evidence suggests that about 10,000 years ago it held a lush lake. Over time, as temperatures rose and less rainfall fell onto the valley, the lake dried up.