Burt provides a compelling case for many of these early readings being questionable. I believe this is how the 137 reading in Algeria was overturned also. It's doubtful that instrumentation back then followed "the rules" about sheltering. I think the 131 reading in Tunisia should be on that list too. Burt argues that since then those locations have never even approached the temps they supposedly recorded back then and there are several cases of abnormally high readings from that era (1910s to 1930s).
I'm both a high and low temperature buff so I like to keep track of these things.....there have only been a few locations in the world that have approached 130....as a matter of fact, there seems to be some barrier there that is extremely hard to exceed.....besides Death Valley, the "128+ club" consists of Basra, Iraq, Mitribah, Kuwait, Ahwaz, Iran and Turbat Pakistan.....all of these locations have seen high temperatures between 128.6 and 129.6 This reading of 129.9 is the closest we've ever gotten in the modern era to 130.
This excludes the very rare heat bursts of course, which are extremely hard to confirm (aside from burnt crops, burnt trees, burnt doors, etc.).....if you include them, there was a 140 supposedly in Oklahoma and even a 189 in Abadan, Iran. I dont know where you stand on anomalous heat bursts, I find them intriguing, but dont think they can realistically be included in the temperature record.
It's really difficult to exceed 126 degrees on this planet, only a few locations have ever done it, and even then only by a couple of degrees at most.