Death Valley National Park

Hottest Place Exhibit

The first visitors to enjoy the newly-finished exhibit. Image courtesy of JT Lab

National Monument
1933
 
National Park
1994
 
Park Size
3.4 million acres, 91% wilderness
 
Annual Visitors
1.1 million
 
Park Fee
$30
 
Superintendent
Mike Reynolds
 
Park Partner
Death Valley Natural History Association
 
Location
Inyo and San Bernardino Counties, CA, Nye County, NV

Death Valley National Park is widely known to be one of the hottest places on planet Earth, with temperatures reaching well over 120˚F in the summer time. In July 2018, the park broke the world record for hottest month ever recorded and it holds the world record for the highest temperature ever recorded: 134˚F (56.7˚C) on July 10, 1913.
 
Countless visitors are captivated by the soaring temperatures and many take photographs with the iconic thermometer exhibit installed in front of the Furnace Creek Visitor Center. Previously, the thermometer only displayed temperatures in Fahrenheit and did not include educational and safety content to help visitors understand Death Valley’s heat and the cooler temperatures to be found at higher elevations in the park.
 
The Fund for People in Parks provided a grant to adaptively alter the exhibit to display both Fahrenheit and Celsius and add an educational component about temperatures in this place of extremes.

The thermometer sign was updated with Celsius in spring 2020 and the educational mosaic work was completed in summer 2021.  
 
Project Cost: $25,000                                                                  Project Completed: 2021

Great to see you are helping out some of the Celsiusers (or is it Celsiites?) by adding in their temperature. I remember having to explain how hot 121 degrees was a few years ago and it blew their mind it was 49.5 degrees."
                    -Michael Franken, visitor, via Facebook

In the summertime, 70% of visitors are from Europe. An awesome partnership with The Fund for People in Parks, the Death Valley Natural History Association, and some matching funds from the National Park Service's Centennial Fund came together to replace the thermometer with a new one that depicts Centigrade, and will also show some scenery that will artfully depict what elevation does and what you can experience here in Death Valley."
          ​-Mike Reynolds, Superintendent, Death Valley National Park

Image courtesy of JT Lab