2012: Hottest Year On Record So Far

The first eight months of 2012 were the warmest of any year on record in the 48 contiguous U.S. states, the U.S. National Climate Data Center said yesterday (September 10th). Each of the last 15 months has seen above-average temperatures, something that's never happened before in the 117 years that U.S. records have been kept, and the winter, spring and summer of 2012 have all been among the top-five hottest for their seasons, also the first time that's happened in the record books. Data Center climate scientist Jake Crouch told Reuters, "We're now, in terms of statistics, in unprecedented territory for how long this warm spell has continued in the contiguous U.S." Crouch didn't say that human-caused climate change was the cause of the record heat, however Reuters noted that this kind of warmth if typical of what other climate scientists have said would be more likely in a warming world.