If I understand you correctly, the following is what you want: 
use strict;
use XML::XPath;

my $date = "2-2004";
my @values =  findmax($date);
print join(",",@values),"\n";

sub findmax{
    my $date = shift;
    my $xp = XML::XPath->new(filename => 'test.xml');
    my $max = $xp->findvalue("/AnnualWeatherRecord/MonthlyWeatherRecor
+d[./date=\"$date\"]/temperature/maxdrybulb/\@number");
    return ($date,$max);
}
__END__
2-2004, 50.25

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In reply to Re: Help with XML::XPath by johnnywang
in thread Help with XML::XPath by perl_seeker

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