2017 among three hottest years on record: WMO

In a sign of continuing long-term climate change caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases, 2015, 2016 and 2017 have been confirmed as the three warmest years on record, according to an analysis by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

It stated that 2016 still holds the global record, whilst 2017 was the warmest year without an El Niño, which can boost global annual temperatures. A consolidated analysis by WMO of five leading international datasets showed that the global average surface temperature in 2017 was approximately 1.1°C above the pre-industrial era.

In Oman and the wider Middle East, temperatures soared above 50°C in 2017 summers. At the end of May, Oman was in the grip of a heatwave as the mercury touched a high of 50°C in Quriyat, Bidiyah and Mahout, while it went up to 49°C in Adam and Mudhaibi.

WMO said that 2016 remains the warmest year on record (1.2°C above the pre-industrial era). Global average temperatures in 2017 and 2015 were both 1.1°C above the pre-industrial levels. The two years are virtually indistinguishable because the difference is less than one hundredth of a degree, which is less than the statistical margin of error. “The long-term temperature trend is far more important than the ranking of individual years, and that trend is an upward one,” said Petteri Taalas, secretary-general, WMO.

“Seventeen of the 18 warmest years on record have all been during this century, and the degree of warming during the past three years has been exceptional. Arctic warmth has been especially pronounced and this will have profound and long-lasting repercussions on sea levels, and on weather patterns in other parts of the world.”