Death Valley sets tentative world record for hottest month, average temperature 108.1

LOS ANGELES -- Preliminary data show Death Valley, California, set the world record for hottest July for the second straight year.

National Weather Service meteorologist Todd Lericos said the month's average temperature at Furnace Creek in Death Valley was 108.1 degrees.

That eclipses the record set in Death Valley in July 2017 when the average was 107.4 degrees.

Lericos said last month saw a persistent pattern of high pressure set up over the Southwest, restricting the movement of air vertically in the atmosphere and creating a heat wave.

Lericos said the data must be reviewed before the record becomes official.

Notoriously blistering Death Valley holds the world record for highest temperature recorded -- 134 degrees -- set July 10, 1913.