US: Current summer almost as "bad" as 1988, or maybe 1954, or maybe 1936, or maybe 1934

Note that this "US Climate Extreme Index" data (far below) could be an interesting aid in debunking purely anecdotal "evidence" that everything is at CO2-induced worst-ever levels today.  For example, doesn't that graph below seem to indicate that drought was worse in the first half of the 20th century than it was in the second half of that century?  If so, why should we believe that CO2 causes droughts?

Record Summer Temperatures, By The Numbers | Climate [Hoax] Central

The weather this summer has been so extreme that it has rivaled the most destructive and unbearable summers in U.S. history, years that are infamous in weather lore. Those years include 1934 and 1936, which were in the middle of the Dust Bowl era, as well as 1954 and 1988, which was the year that Yellowstone National Park burned and NASA scientist James Hansen first warned the U.S. Senate about the consequences of manmade global warming.
...
The U.S. Climate Extremes Index, which tracks the highest and lowest 10 percent of extremes in temperature, precipitation, drought and tropical storms/hurricanes, was a record-large 44 percent during the January-to-June period. That was more than twice the average value, driven largely by warm daily high and warm overnight low temperatures.

U.S. Climate Extremes Index