GLOBAL TEMPERATURES will rise to their highest levels ever recorded this year, according to scientists at the UK Met Office.
They believe there is a 60 per cent chance that 2007 temperatures will top the previous hottest year, 1998. The scorching predictions for 2007 are due partly to global warming and partly to a moderate El Niño event — a climatic phenomenon focused on the tropical eastern Pacific that affects climate globally, including the Indian monsoon.
1998 was a strong El Niño year with a global average temperature of 14.52 degrees Celsius. Prediction is that this year will be 0.02 degrees higher.
Predicting the global average temperature is not difficult — it does not vary much from year to year, said Phil Jones, director, climate research unit, University of East Anglia. “This is a global average and the larger the average you do it over the smaller will be the error bars on the prediction,” he said.
— The Guardian