2013 to be in top ten warmest since records began

Taking into account the range of uncertainty in the forecast and observations, the Met Office are predicting that it is very likely that 2013 will be one of the top ten warmest years on record, which goes back to 1850, and it is predicted to be warmer than 2012.

The forecast follows provisional figures for the observed temperature in 2012, published by the Met Office and University of East Anglia last month. These showed that global average temperatures in 2012 were 0.45 °C above the long term average based on data from the three international global temperature datasets used by the World Meteorological Organization.

2012 is currently ranked the 9th warmest year on record. The global average temperature for 2012 falls well within the range predicted by the Met Office for 2012 of between 0.34 °C and 0.62 °C, with a most likely value of 0.48 °C above the long term average. This is consistent with the Met Office forecast statement that 2012 was expected to be warmer than 2011, but not as warm as the record year of 2010.