2025 ‘likely’ to be in top three warmest years: UK Met Office

LONDON: The UK weather service forecast on Thursday that 2025 would likely be among the top three warmest years globally, falling just behind the record-breaking temperatures set in the past months.

According to the Meteorological Office´s 2025 forecast, average global temperatures next year will be 1.29 to 1.53 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900), slightly cooler than in 2024 and 2023.

The Met also said 2024 was expected to be the warmest year on record, confirming findings released this week by Europe´s climate monitor Copernicus.

The reports come at the end of a year in which rich and poor countries were devastated by climate disasters that scientists link to human activity that is rapidly warming the Earth.

According to the Met forecast, 2024 is also “almost certain to exceed” for the first time the 1.5C (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) threshold to protect the planet from dangerously overheating, following the 1.45C reached in 2023.

“The major contribution” to warming temperatures is the rise of greenhouse gas emissions, driven by human activity like burning fossil fuels, according to the report.

2024 and 2023 temperatures were also “elevated slightly” by El Nino, a natural phenomenon that moves around warm water.