Show miles of death valley floor below sea level running in a general northwesterly direction death valley is narrow ui in comparison to its length ranging from four miles or less in width at constricted points to perhaps sixteen miles at its widest part it is a region ot of superlatives approximately square miles ot of the valley floor are below sea level and dwater badwater Ba feet below that datum plane is the lowest land on the entire western hemisphere telescope peak towering feet above the valley floor probably stands higher above its immediate surroundings than any other mountain in the 48 states death valley held until quite recently a worlds record for high temperatures pera tures and it is one of the drnest places in the west in a standard thermometer shelter at furnace creek a maximum air temperature of degrees fahrenheit in the shade has been recorded on the salt flats near badwater Ba dwater in the deepest part of the valley it has probably been hotter still the valley is famous for consistently fair weather lack of rainfall and extremely low humidity one record for an entire year showed clear days and the average annual precipitation over a period of many years is one and four tenths inches |