Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images

This week, an intense heat dome is trapping hot air over much of the Western United States, sending temperatures up to 30 degrees hotter than normal for early June. Yesterday, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Las Vegas were pushing into the triple digits, and nighttime temperatures this week haven’t offered much relief.

These conditions are extreme, but nowhere are they more extreme than Death Valley.

Nine out of 10 of Death Valley’s hottest summers have been in the past 10 years. Death Valley, California, already the hottest place on the planet, is now in the middle of the heat dome, making it an interesting place to look at the implications of such high temperatures so early in the year. 

I spoke with Abby Wines, a spokesperson from Death Valley National Park, on the peak of the heat dome this Thursday. As we spoke on Thursday morning, the mercury on the park’s temperature gauge was climbing — on its way to hit 121 degrees, tying the hottest temperature for this time of the year. This is only the start of what’s shaping up to be an extremely hot summer. 

These temperatures are alarming and harmful. Last year’s excessive heat led to more heat-related deaths than any year on record. According to an AP analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, the death certificates of more than 2,300 people who died in the United States last summer mention the effects of excessive heat, the highest number in 45 years of records.

When Wines and I spoke, she talked about some of the cracks that are emerging in a place that is accustomed to such extreme temperatures. Even for the hottest place on Earth, there’s a threshold for heat acclimation.

But perhaps even scarier is what that might mean for the rest of us.  

George Rose/Getty Images)

Paige Vega

Death Valley is home to a lot of amazing wildlife and plant life that have adopted some fascinating adaptations to cope in this kind of environment. Could you talk about some of the local wildlife celebrities and their adaptations and survival strategies? 

Abby Wines

One of the more common species here is called the zebra-tailed lizard. It’s a very light-colored lizard, which is good for reflecting as much of the sun’s rays as possible.

Another animal that’s extremely well desert adapted is called a kangaroo rat. I wish it wasn’t called a rat, because it’s actually like a little cute mouse, and it hops around on its hind feet, with a long tail. It survives by going underground into burrows during the day. It’s out of the sun, out of the heat, and then it’s more active at night, especially in the summertime. Road runners and coyotes also do very well in the heat.

Paige Vega

Climate change is projected to make Death Valley even hotter and more arid in the future. Is there a point where it’s too hot, even for the hottest place on Earth? Is there a level to that kind of acclimation? 

Abby Wines

Just like it’s different for each human, there’s a slightly different threshold for every creature and plant life, and we don't know what that is.

Take the Devils Hole pupfish, for example. These little fishes live in water that’s about 93 degrees on average, which is about the hottest water that any fish lives in. Maybe they’d be okay at 94, maybe they’d be okay at 97, maybe they would even be okay at 140. But I’m pretty sure they’re not going to be okay at 212. We don’t know what their threshold is and we’re certainly not doing experiments on them to find that out. 

Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

Paige Vega

Could you talk about if there is any evidence of heat stress on the landscape within this heat-acclimated ecosystem? 

Abby Wines

There is some compelling research on this.

More than a century ago, a study conducted by the University of California Berkeley surveyed multiple landscapes across California. The work provided a baseline — very detailed studies within Death Valley — of exactly what animal they found at what elevation, at what location they took samples to look at the size of the animal's body, and the abundance of animals at each of those locations.

And then a few years ago, scientists went back to many of those spots and replicated part of the studies. What they found in Death Valley is that some wildlife, animals like the kangaroo rats, seem to be doing okay. But other animals are not doing so well. The research found that 30 percent of the bird species in Death Valley show a reduction in abundance and range, so there are less of them in less parts of the park than there used to be 100 years ago.

Another bit of evidence that is of real concern has to do with bristlecone pine trees. They’re one of the oldest living things on the planet — they can reach thousands of years in age — and they tend to live on high desert mountains throughout the Great Basin region, which includes Death Valley National Park.

The population is now being attacked by bark beetles, and that’s pretty weird. Part of how and why bristlecone live so long is because they are very resistant to infestations by pests like bark beetles. The species of bark beetle that is currently attacking Death Valley’s bristlecone pines is native — so it’s always lived in Death Valley, but it’s never been able to attack bristlecones before. The heating climate is changing that.

Paige Vega

What are the broader implications of those changes? 

Abby Wines

Another way to think of all of this is, yes, as climate changes, Death Valley is going to be impacted and life here is going to suffer. That’s not a good thing. 

But even worse is the potential for the conditions that we’re used to seeing in Death Valley becoming more recurrent in the places near Death Valley. The way Death Valley is now might be the way that surrounding areas of the desert could become if climate change stays on its trajectory. 

So, consider Las Vegas or Palm Springs — those areas might become more like Death Valley and, well, I love Death Valley, but I don't think that the extreme heat that we have here is what anybody really wants for a region-wide landscape. 

Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty Images

If you just stood up and shouted, “It’s Mount Everest, duh!” then take a seat.

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Today's edition was produced and edited by Caroline Houck. We'll see you next week!

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