Year 2016 will be the hottest year on record, with global temperatures breaching the already record-making temperatures of 2015.
This was stated by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which based the conclusion on a new data that showed 2016's global temperatures are approximately 1.2° Celsius above the pre-industrial levels.
To be precise, the global temperatures between January and September 2016 have been about 0.88° Celsius (1.58°F) higher than the average (14°C) for the 1961-1990 reference period, used by WMO as a benchmark.
The preliminary data for October indicated that the temperatures are at a sufficiently high level for 2016 and the hottest year tag is on the way. That would take 2016 to the club of 16 of the 17 hottest years on record this century, in which 1998 was a prominent one.
The world body stated that the El Niño event of 2015-16 was responsible for a hike in temperatures apparent in the early months of the year.
Adding to that is climate change indicators showing a new alarm. Concentrations of major greenhouse gasses are increasing and Arctic sea ice is down to scary low levels with an early melting of the Greenland ice sheet having been reported.
Similarly, Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Russia, Alaska and Canada are at least 3 °C above average.
"Three record-breaking years for global temperature would be remarkable," says Peter Stott, of the Met Office.
Trump Presidency And Paris Agreement
The prediction from the U.N. weather agency was released to update the latest UN climate talks in Morocco where the focus is on implementing the Paris Agreement.
The study suggests there has been "almost no growth" in carbon emissions from fossil fuels in the past three years, unlike the previous decade with hopes that emissions may have peaked.
The study comes at a time when the future of climate change talks has been overweighed by Donald Trump's election win.
Trump is on record calling climate change a hoax with his transition team member saying pulling the United States out of the 2015 Paris Agreement is a priority.
The Paris accord seeks to shift the world economy from the grip of fossil fuels towards a higher push on renewable energy.
"Another year. Another record," WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a statement in Marrakesh, Morocco, where 200 nations are deliberating on the means for slowing climate change.
The WMO also said heatwaves and flooding have become much more common and pointed to events like Hurricane Matthew that hit Haiti in October, China's flooding and the biggest wildfire in Canadian history as events that are signaling a change in climate.
