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In meteorology and climatology, 'absolute extremes' refers to the highest and lowest values ever recorded for a weather element (temperature, precipitation, wind, etc.) over the entire period of record at a location. These represent the ultimate boundaries of observed weather conditions. 'Average extremes' typically refers to mean values of extreme events, 'relative extremes' might compare to a baseline, and 'extremes' alone is ambiguous. Absolute extremes provide critical benchmarks for understanding climate variability and designing infrastructure to withstand worst-case conditions.