2012 Hottest Year in HIstory
Global Warming?
Last year was the hottest on record for the U.S. by a big margin, the government announced Tuesday (January 8th), with the average annual temperature up to 55.32 degrees, a full degree warmer than the old record set in 1998. Scientists say breaking temperature records by an entire degree is unprecedented, with records normally broken by a tenth of a degree or so. According to researchers, the U.S. heat is caused partially by natural weather variations, such as the drought that hit nearly two-thirds of the nation and the effects of La Nina, as well as by climate change from man-made greenhouse gases. Katharine Hayhoe, director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech, told AP that the temperature increases being caused by climate change are happening faster than scientists had predicted.