By Miriam Raftery
January 8, 2013 (Washington D.C.) – If the weather seemed hotter last year than in the past, your memory is correct.
In its State of the Climate Report, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center reveals today that 2012 averaged the hottest temperatures ever recorded for the lower 48 states in the U.S. Nationwide, the average temperature for 2012 was 55.3 degrees Fahrenheit—a full 3.2 degrees higher than the 20th Century average and one degree hotter than the previous hottest year on record (1998).
It was also a historic year for extreme weather that included severe drought, larger wildfires, hurricanes and storms--the second worst year on record.
View report: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/ and scroll down for highlights.