According to the Malaysian Meteorological Depart­ment, the hot spell that's hitting Malaysia is the by-product of the tropical storm Pabuk, which severely ravaged our neighbour Thailand back in January.

MetMalaysia's director-general Alui Bahari told The Star Online that the storm caused changes to the wind direction, thus causing a reduction in moisture and rain cloud formation in Malaysia.

Although Alui said the hot spell is only temporary and the weather will go back to normal by the end of January, the sweat stains on our armpits after getting out of bed prove otherwise.

The Department has yet to release a statement about the current heat wave - it could just be the normal Chinese New Year weather, after all - but one thing's for sure: it's incredibly hot outside these days.

Although the current sweltering weather is super annoying, it's no where near being the highest recorded temperature in Malaysian history.

'The Furnace Of Malaysia'

The unfortunate honour belongs to a small town in Perlis.

On 9 April 1998, the temperature in Chuping, a town located to the northeast of Kangar, reached an insane 40.1 degrees Celcius - the highest ever recorded temperature in the nation's history.

The temperature was largely due to the 1997-1998 El Nino phenomenon, which was dubbed the most powerful in recorded history. In fact, the phenomenon contributed to one of our neighbour Indonesia's worst droughts ever.

But why Chuping? Well, it didn't help that Chuping happens to be one of the driest towns in Malaysia, receiving just about 1,746 mm (68.7 in) annually.

That was when Chuping earned the nickname 'The Furnace of Malaysia'.

Don't feel too bad for the small town, though, as the above-average temperature has its advantages. Chuping has 22,000 hectares of plantations, including the largest sugar cane plantation in Malaysia.

Malaysia Vs The World

Sure, 40.1 degrees sounds like it's really hot (well, technically it is), but it comes no where near to the record-breaking temperatures that were recorded in our neighbouring countries as well as some places around the world.

In Asia, the cities of Ahwaz in Iran (2017) and Mitribah in Kuwait (2016) recorded an armpit-sweating temperature of 54 degrees Celcius.

But when it comes to the highest temperature ever recorded in the history of the world, Ahwaz and Mitribah's 54 degrees Celcius pales in comparison.

No, seriously!

According to the Guiness World Records, the hottest temperature ever was recorded on 10 July 1913 at the Furnace Creek located in the Death Valley in the United States.

On that day, the thermometer hit a staggering 56.7 degrees Celcius, which, according to experts, would push the limits of human survival.

In fact, during that period of time, the Furnace Creek recorded a temperature of at least 54 degrees Celcius for five consecutive days!

Coincidentally, the Death Valley is known to be one of the driest places in the whole wide world, with temperatures reaching an average of 47 degrees Celcius in the summer.