Dust to Dust

NASA recalculates, 1998 becomes second-hottest year in U.S.

The year 1998 has dropped from the hottest-year-ever-in-the-U.S. throne after NASA revised calculations, allowing Dust-Bowl-affected 1934 to claim the title. Despite triumphant cackling from climate skeptics, the rejiggering does not affect global climate records, and really is, for all intents and purposes, a technicality -- globally, 1998 is still tied with 2005 as the hottest year ever recorded.