Well, it is December, everyone. It’s the time of year when you just want to stay huddled up cozily inside, maybe with a roaring fire to provide comfort given the … unseasonably warm temperatures outside.

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The projected high-temperature map for today looks like this:

high temps december 3

NOAA

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Again, it is Dec. 3. Here in New York City, it is expected to reach 64 degrees today, 70 tomorrow. Normal high temperature for Dec. 4 in New York is 49.

Or, to put it another way: Here is a map of all of the record high and low temperatures set yesterday. The highs are indicated by red dots; the lows, purple ones. I think you get the point.

Screen Shot 2012-12-03 at 10.10.37 AM

It’s almost as though this chokingly hot summer never ended. The drought continues (2,293 counties are still designated as disaster areas [PDF]) as do wildfires — a wind-fueled fire in Colorado burned 4,400 acres over the weekend.

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A caveat. There is a difference between the weather and the climate. A hot day in December is not uncommon, much less unusual. If there’s one good thing about the record heat we’re seeing it’s this: We get to enjoy another few days without comments from climate deniers saying, “whatevur happened to global wamring lol al gore suxxx.”