This week the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration reported that 2012 was the warmest year on record for the contiguous United States. NOAA’s not the only one to reach this conclusion. As Ron Bailey noted http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/“>here, 2012 was also the warmest year in the continental U.S. in the 34-year satellite temperature record (but not the hottest year globally). Indeed, as Bailey notes here, 2012 tops five separate temperature records. Globally, however, 2012 was not the warmest on record — but it was still in the top ten.