A group of six motorcyclists drove through California's Death Valley in 128-degree weather on Saturday — and one died from the extreme heat.
As the rider struggled on the hottest July 6th ever recorded in the area, helicopters were not able to reach him. "Due to the high temperatures, emergency medical flight helicopters were unable to respond, as they cannot generally fly safely over 120 degrees," officials said, via The Independent.
But park rangers from Nevada arrived to find the motorcyclist had died at the scene. They were able to treat the other five motorcyclists, however, and sent one of them, who was experiencing "extreme heat illness," to a hospital in Las Vegas, according to the Los Angeles Times.
From Los Angeles Times:
The motorcyclists were touring the park near Badwater Basin, a stretch of salt flats that is also the lowest point in North America, when — in the mid- to late afternoon — they reported being affected by the extreme heat, according to park ranger Nichole Andler. …
Saturday's temperature was just shy of the all-time heat record in Death Valley — 134 degrees, which was set on July 10, 1913. Since record-keeping began in 1911, temperatures have reached or exceeded 130 degrees only three times — with two of those times since 2020: Aug. 16, 2020, and again on July 9, 2021.
Each year, at least one to three people die of heat-related illnesses while visiting the park, and each week, there are one to three calls for medical assistance for heat-related stress.
"Folks get excited about experiencing the warmest temperatures that they've ever experienced before, and sometimes they forget that if an hour ago they were hot and started to feel nauseous, then they need to spend the rest of the day in air conditioning — because that could be the earliest sign of heat illness," Andler said. "If you warm up and never properly cool down, your body doesn't get a chance to reset."
The hottest day ever recorded on Earth was in Death Valley in July of 1913, at 134 F. The temperature in Death Valley is supposed to reach 126 today and 128 tomorrow, but will cool down to a mere 118 degrees by early next week.
Previously: Death of a Death Valley Hiker
