Hottest five-year period on record is 2011-2015, says WMO

Barely a week to go before the major global climate negotiations at Paris comes bad news from the World Meteorological Organisation – 2015 is likely to be the warmest year in recorded history.

This year has already logged the warmest March, May, June, July, August, September and October on record, according to monthly reports by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The global average surface temperature from January to October shows the temperature for 2015 was around 0.73C above the 1961 to 1990 average of 14C, and approximately one degree above the pre-industrial 1880 to 1899 period.

Geneva: The year 2015 is shaping up to be the hottest on record, the UN’s weather agency said today, a week ahead of a crucial climate change summit in Paris.

2015 is likely to be the hottest year on record, with ocean surface temperatures at the highest level.

The soaring temperatures this year appear to be part of a trend, with WMO indicating that the years 2011-2015 marked the hottest five-year period ever measured.

El Nino, which occurs every two to seven years, tends to naturally hike temperatures, and the WMO said it was not clear how much of this year’s record heat could be attributed to the phenomenon.

“We have broken new records for the concentration of greenhouse gases”, WMO Secretary General Michel Jarraud highlighted, warning that “time is really not our side”.

“Greenhouse gas emissions, which are causing change, can be controlled”, Jarraud said.

China is having its warmest year on record, as is the most of Asia and South America.

The WMO additionally claimed that a number of the extreme weather events in the previous five years, particularly those linking to higher temperatures, have had their chances significantly raised as an effect of human-induced climate change. There were also extremely hot periods in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere.

WMO indicated that global ocean temperatures were also at unprecedented levels, and that 2011 was the world’s second-wettest year on record when averaged over global land areas.

The WMO said temperatures had now risen 1 degree Celsius since the industrial revolution, with 2C considered the limit to avoid risky climate change.

“What we call a cold year now would have been considered a record warm year before 1997”, he added.

With yearly temperature fluctuations linked to long-term warming trends, in particular as a result of El Nino or La Nina events, WMO report coordinator Omar Baddour warned that “next year may be even warmer than this year because of El Nino”.