I want to kick this guy right in his fireballs.
But wait, it gets worse. The past 12 months have also been the hottest on record for the country. I don't want to offend anybody's deeply-felt convictions by mentioning global warming, so I'll just say "schmobal schwarming?" and tilt my head to the side like an inquisitive dog.
The NOAA scientists have compiled an interesting graph of recorded temperature extremes for the US at their website, which is pasted below (and visible in a larger format here).
The five hottest years (1998, 2006, 1934, 1999, 1921) are marked in orange, and the five coolest years are marked in blue (1917, 1912, 1895, 1924, 1903). You may notice that three of the five hottest years are of a rather recent vintage; none of the five coolest years are. In fact, we haven't seen a truly record cold year since 1924.
