Is there a more dramatically named area in the world than Death Valley?
If so, I haven't found it.
This desert in eastern California has certainly earned its reputation. Death Valley averages 23 days of 120-plus-degree weather every year.
The record for the highest air temperature recorded on Earth was set at Death Valley, though there is somedebateabout the accuracy of that reading.
The prospectors whonamedthe area in the 19th century knew what they were talking about. Death Valley is a place so hot and dry that it could kill you.
Yet, it isn't hot every day.
In January, Death Valley's average lows are in the low 40s. That can lead to some unusual situations.
On this day in 1922, 104 years ago, Greenland Ranch, then the official reporting station, recorded 0.5 inches of snowfall. On roughly a handful of other dates, trace amounts of snow have dusted the area.
But Jan. 29, 1922, is the only day that measurable snow was ever recorded in Death Valley.
