The vast majority of US all-time record station temperatures were set more than 55 years ago, and never matched again. The graph below is for all stations which were active in both 1920 and 2016.
The vast majority of daily summer maximum temperature records were set before 1955, with the exception of 1988 – when Hansen testified before Congress after sabotaging the air conditioner.
And did you also alter the temperature in the hearing room that day?
… What we did it was went in the night before and opened all the windows, I will admit, right? So that the air conditioning wasn’t working inside the room and so when the, when the hearing occurred there was not only bliss, which is television cameras in double figures, but it was really hot. … So Hansen’s giving this testimony, you’ve got these television cameras back there heating up the room, and the air conditioning in the room didn’t appear to work. So it was sort of a perfect collection of events that happened that day, with the wonderful Jim Hansen, who was wiping his brow at the witness table and giving this remarkable testimony.
