The Met Office have recently announced their annual global temperature forecast for 2020 suggesting that next year will extend the series of the earth’s hottest years, since records began in 1850.
The warmest years started in 2015, across the globe the warmest year on record was 2016, when significant El Nino-related warming in the tropical Pacific boosted the global temperature.
Temperatures in Dorset reached around 21°C in May 2016, but the hottest time was this summer 2019 when temperatures soared to 34°C as sun lovers flocked to the beach.
Current forecasts predict that 2020 will surpass this as the levels of greenhouse gases rise in the atmosphere.
The forecast is based on the key drivers of the global climate, but it doesn’t include unpredictable events, such as a large volcanic eruption, which could cause a temporary cooling.
2019 global forecasts were mostly accurate with data from January to October agreeing closely with the predicted temperatures.
Dr Doug Smith, Met Office research fellow, said: “The forecast for 2020 would place next year amongst the six warmest years on record, which would all have occurred since 2015.
“All of these years have been around 1.0°C warmer than the pre-industrial period.”