Warning: it’s only going to get hotter

WASHINGTON: While 2018 was the fourthwarmest year on record, British meteorologists are predicting the next five years will be much hotter, maybe even recordbreaking.

Two US agencies, the United Kingdom Met Office and the World Meteorological Organisation, analysed global temperatures in slightly different ways, but each came to the same conclusion yesterday: 2018 was the fourthwarmest year on record behind 2016, 2015 and 2017. The US Government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said 2018’s average temperature was 14.69degC, which is 0.79degC warmer than the 20th century average. Much of Europe had its warmest years on record. Records go back to 1880.

Using computer simulations, the British weather office forecast that the next five years will average somewhere between 14.73degC to 15.27degC. That would be warmer than the past four years.