"2016 Set To Be Hottest Year on Record Globally"

"UK Met Office estimates 2016 will be at least as hot as 2015, which would mean the three hottest years ever had occurred in a row".

"2016 is set to be the warmest year ever recorded, according to a forecast issued by the UK Met Office on Thursday.

Climate change and the peaking of the El Niño weather phenomenon are expected to drive the global average temperature next year above the record now certain to be set for 2015, which itself beat a new record set in 2014.

The forecast comes just five days after 195 nations agreed a historic deal to fight global warming at a UN summit in Paris by keeping the world’s temperature rise under 2C, with an ambition to restrict the rise to 1.5C."

Damian Carrington reports for the Guardian December 17, 2015.