Article updated: 1/9/2013 9:07 AM

2012 was hottest year recorded in U.S.

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Federal meteorologists say America was deep fried in 2012, becoming the hottest year on record by far. Above, Timmy Benson wears a wet towel on his head as he cools off in a fountain outside Busch Stadium before a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game July 6.

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America set an off-the-charts heat record in 2012. A brutal combination of a widespread drought and a mostly absent winter pushed the average annual U.S. temperature last year up to 55.32 degrees Fahrenheit, the government announced Tuesday. That's a full degree warmer than the old record set in 1998.

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