Science | weather US on Track for Warmest Year Ever It's a near certainty, barring a severely frigid final 3 months By John Johnson Posted Oct 9, 2012 6:11 PM CDT Copied In this July 5, 2012, file photo, the sun sets in Pleasant Plains, Ill. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman) With help from the hottest July on record and 16 straight months of above-average temperatures, the US is on track to post its hottest year in history, reports NBCNews.com. In fact, the only way we can miss the mark is if the final three months of the year get seriously cold and add up to one of the top 10 coldest quarters in history. Don't bank on it. A weather.com meteorologist tweeted today that there's only about a 7% chance that the US won't set the hottest-ever mark. Records started being kept in 1895. Read These Next A former NFL Pro Bowler has died at age 36. The massive AWS failure exposed a big problem with the internet. Backlash for Trump nominee who said he has 'a Nazi streak.' A man ended up dead after trying to steal from Spirit Halloween. Report an error