I think these sorts of headlines are intended to raise awareness of climate change, but I conjecture the effect they have for some (or many, or even most) people is to make them throw up their hands and say "well, what can I do about it?". I know that, after seeing so many of them, they've stopped shocking me. They just make me feel a little sad. I suspect in the future I'll be numb to them, and they'll have lost any supposed power to inspire action. While any individual instance of record temperatures is alarming, enough of them, one after another, creates a narrative of powerlessness or hopelessness that is redundant and unproductive.