NOAA’s Climate Extreme Index shows that contiguous US summer afternoons have been getting hotter and are record hot now.
“Percentage of the United States with maximum temperatures much above normal”
U.S. Climate Extremes Index (CEI) | Graph | National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)
NOAA’s state climate summaries shows that hot afternoons have become much less frequent.
Wyoming – State Climate Summaries 2022
USHCN daily temperature data shows that the percentage of the US reaching 95F has dropped sharply since the 1930s.
The National Climate Assessment also shows a sharp decline in heatwaves.
Temperature Changes in the United States – Climate Science Special Report
I have posted this before. I live in South Central Minnesota and our St Cloud Minnesota records go back into the 1890s, and they clearly show that we have had more above 90° days prior to 1960 then we have had since. it’s not even close …something like 200 days different – cooler. A friend of mine just bought a condo in Roatan, just off the coast of Honduras at 16 degrees latitude and the high temperature for next week is only 80. just saying but Minnesota corn crops don’t even thrive at 80 degrees …they require 90. and they love high humidity. in other news… in the next few days we will be seeing below zero temperatures in southern Minnesota, without the wind. I hope my 19-year-old furnace holds out
And on the other side of the world (if a sphere can even have ‘sides’) New Zealand’s maximum temperature recorded in modern times goes back 52 years (!) to February 7, 1973, when a roaring foehn nor’west summer breeze cranked the thermometer up to 42.4 Celsius (108 F) in the rural town of Rangiora in the South Island.
Nothing since has even got close to that, though similar to Australia and the USA, our pre-1910 records have been quietly pushed under the carpet… apart from the coldest day recorded in 1903 at Ranfurly (again in the South Island) of -25.6 Celsius (-14 F).
A Very Convenient Selection?