the defense department go beyond that. national journal s beth reinhard, really interesting. thanks for coming on the program. thanks. well the new numbers won t surprise environmental lobbies and they probably confirm what you may have suspected about last year s weather. 2012 was the warmest year on record in the united states. scientists say the average temperature was 55.3 degrees. a degree higher than the previous record set in 1998. it was also 3 degrees above normal. meantime, chicago is on track to break a 72-year long snowless record. if there s no snowfall by the end of today, this will mark the longest stretch without an inch of snow on the ground since 1940. a grand are total of 319 days. chicago usually has almost 12 inches of snow by this time of year. did you know that as we age our need for protein increases, yet many of us don t meet our daily protein needs?