When the weathermen tell us that “it is the highest temperature for 250 years”, the frame of reference for such claims was provided by Giovanni Poleni, the first person in the world to officially register temperatures and rainfall (the first records for each dating from 1713 and 1725 respectively).
You will never hear “it is the highest temperature for 400 years”, because prior to the eigtheenth century there simply were not the instruments to make such measurements.
No ordinary man, Poleni was a philosopher, theologian, mathematician, jurist, physicist and hydraulic engineer.

Photos by Ottocentenario Università di Padova