2012 was the hottest year in history in New York, D.C., Louisville, Philadelphia … [1]

Grist - 1/02/13, Philip Bump

It’s not yet official, but 2012 was the hottest year in American history [2]. Recorded history, that is; we’ll allow climate change deniers the possibility that the United States was hotter when it was a still-forming Pangeal mass of semi-solid lava. Beyond that, though: hottest ever.

This led to a bumper crop of “hottest year ever!” stories in local media last week. Here’s a Google News search for “hottest year.” [3] Among the areas noting that accomplishment: Lexington [4], Richmond [5], Topeka [6], New Jersey [7], Cleveland and Columbus [8], Philadelphia [9], New Orleans [10], Burlington [11], Louisville [12], and New York City [13]. In fact, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration indicates that [14] its 170,000-odd monitoring stations in the U.S. recorded 24,280 new record highs over the course of 2012, and 9,728 tied highs.

To read the rest of this story, visit Grist.org. [15]