BartSimpson BartSimpson:
Of course it's the hottest ever recorded. The Russians deactivated some 1200 weather stations this last year (in addition to the 3,000 they deactivated in 1991) and that took them out of the mix to lower the 'averages'.
Average speeds on your local highways will be "the fastest ever" if you don't include trucks and other typically slow vehicles and temps will be "the hottest ever" if you don't include stats from typically cooler weather stations.
So you trust Russia's numbers over your own?
This is an absence of Russian numbers.