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 For these factory workers, an unexpected windfall. The 'Great Housing Reset' is apparently on its way. A request to turn off football game ends in a murder-suicide. Edited version of It's a Wonderful Life has viewers perplexed. Report an error