Welcome to history: We're living in the hottest time ever for the United States, and this spring was the warmest since the country started keeping records, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports.

So far, 2012 has had the highest average temperature, and the last 12 months have been the warmest ever in a row, at least for the lower 48 states. The average temperature for the meteorological spring, from March (when the above photo was taken in New York) through May, was 57.1 degrees Fahrenheit. That's 0.3 degrees cooler than the prediction from Capital Climate, which The Atlantic Wire's Dino Grandoni graphed last week, and "5.2°F above the 1901-2000 long-term average, surpassing the previous warmest spring (1910) by 2.0°F," NOAA reported.

So what does that mean for the future? NOAA's Jake Crouch told Reuters' Deborah Zabarenko: "More long-lasting heat waves, record-high daytime temperatures and record-high overnight low temperatures are to be expected in a warming world." Better dress appropriately.

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Adam Martin