2012 warmest year for U.S., officials say
WASHINGTON -- America set an off-the-charts heat record in 2012.
A brutal combination of a widespread drought and a mostly absent winter pushed the average annual U.S. temperature last year up to 55.32 degrees, the government announced Tuesday. That's a full degree warmer than the old record set in 1998.
Normally, temperature records are broken by a tenth of a degree or so.
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