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 new ransom demand arrives in the Nancy Guthrie case. What we know about former Prince Andrew's arrest. Pal planned to expose Epstein in 2016. Then Epstein found out. Former Prince Andrew is arrested—on his birthday. Report an error