2013 is likely to be one of the ten warmest years on record, according to the UK’s Met Office.
The organisation’s annual global temperature prediction has estimated that next year will be between 0.43 °C and 0.71°C warmer than the long-term (1961-1990) global average of 14.0°C.
The best estimate is for the year is for it to be 0.57°C warmer than the long term average. The record for the warmest year is held jointly with both 2005 and 2010 being 0.54°C above the 1961-1990 baseline.
2013 could well be the warmest year on record, according to the Met Office. (Source: Flickr/Guillaume Brialon)
“Taking into account the range of uncertainty in the forecast and observations, it is very likely that 2013 will be one of the warmest ten years in the record which goes back to 1850, and it is likely to be warmer than 2012,” read a Met Office statement.
Despite increasing warnings on the effects of climate change from UNEP, the World Bank and the International Energy Agency (IEA), political urgency on climate change continues to lag behind the warnings according to campaigners.
“The litany of extreme weather events, food price spikes and record Arctic sea ice melt show how vulnerable all of us – and particularly the world’s poorest – are to changes in our climate,” said Dr Katherine Watts, International Climate Change Policy Advisor, WWF.
“The climate impacts we are seeing now are serious enough, when global temperatures have risen by an average of just 0.8°C.
“A string of authoritative reports have confirmed that the world is currently on course for warming of 4°C or more. It is inexcusable that so many politicians still fail to grasp the urgency of the issue, or the consequences of their inaction,” said Watts.
Rank Year WMO Temp Anomaly*
1 2010 0.54
2 2005 0.54
3 1998 0.51
4 2007 0.49
5 2004 0.49
*Anomaly: °C above long-term average of 14.0 °C.