2012 temperatures set some Ohio records

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - It turns out 2012 was one of the hottest on record in several Ohio cities.

Thanks to an unusually warm spring followed by a hot summer, Cleveland and Columbus both had their highest average annual temperatures this past year. Both cities broke records set in 1998.

Columbus had an average temperature of 56 degrees in 2012.

Toledo, Cincinnati and Dayton all fell short of breaking their records. But it was still among the five hottest years those cities have posted.

State climatologist Jeffrey Rogers says more and more evidence points to climate change for the spiking temperatures. He tells The Columbus Dispatch that the state has had decades of rising temperatures since the 1960s.