I realize there have been very high (and low?) temperatures measured in the recent past, but I can't comment on where and how those readings were taken or how widespread they were.
Prof Bob Carter comments on some of those readings coming from stations strangely moved to ridiculous locations like next to a exhaust fans, over asphalt ets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpQQGFZHSno&NR=1
Worth mentioning also, that after the end of the Cold War, huge amount of stations located in the coldest areas of the Earth (Russia) are not functioning and not providing data any more.
First snow in the history of Iraq is a fact difficult to argue with.
Even if we reach greater extremes in the future, that does not prove that our world has become like a heat pump - what in fact the man made CO2 global-warming HYPOTHESIS is. Also, from what I recall big temperature extremes are likely signal for a coming Ice Age - something really worth worrying about!
