I dislike these headlines techniques a lot, and they are very frequent - like the coldest March 1st in 23 years, or the warmest Jan 8th in 12.5 years, etc. The warmest Feb. in 30+ years (though not, evidently, in 40+ years).

We don't see headlines passed around when the day doesn't break any records, and the bar is raised or lowered seemingly to fit the need for a record. Take any day, and find the last time the temp was colder or warmer, set the headline to those parameters and gen up some more anxiety.

I'm skeptical of how useful headlines like this are for any purpose, and suspect they do more harm than good in terms of giving people a tin ear to any real problem.