Science Backing Up What You Already Know - 2012's Been Hottest On Record
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - This may not come as a big surprise, but so far 2012 has been the hottest year on record for the northeast.
New data from the Regional Climate Center at Cornell University showed this has been the warmest January through July in the 117 years since records have been kept.
The 12-state region has had an average temperature of 49.9 degrees so far this year.
WCBS 880's Jim Smith reports
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New Jersey just experienced its fifth-hottest July on record. For the entire northeast, last month was the seventh warmest.
New Jersey state climatologist Dave Robinson said the warmer temperatures are not new.
"We have been persistently warm. In New Jersey, we've gone 18 consecutive months without a below-average monthly temperature," Robinson told WCBS 880's Jim Smith.
Robinson said the record temperatures may be the effect of climate change.
"The fact that we're having so many of them in the last decade or two speaks the impacts that humans are having," Robinson told Smith.
Every state in the northeast averaged warmer than normal temperatures last month.
