WMO forecasts record hot global temperature within next five years
May 28 (UPI) -- Global warming is expected to send temperatures soaring at or near record levels over the next five years, according to a Wednesday report from the World Meteorological Organization.
The WMO report said there's an 86% chance that at least one of the next five years will exceed the Paris Climate Agreement goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Farenheit, above the 1850-1900 global temperature average.
There's an 80% chance that at least one of the next five years will surpass 2024 as warmest on record.
The WMO report said global temperatures "are expected to continue at or near record levels in the next five years, increasing climate risks and impacts on societies, economies and sustainable development."
"We have just experienced the ten warmest years on record. Unfortunately, this WMO report provides no sign of respite over the coming years, and this means that there will be a growing negative impact on our economies, our daily lives, our ecosystems and our planet," WMO Deputy Secretary-General Ko Barrett said in a statement.
The report forecast a 70% chance that the 2025-2029 five-year-average warming will be more than the 2.7 degrees Farenheit threshold.
That's up from the 47% chance forecast in last year's report for the 2024-2028 period. In the 2023 report it was 32%.
The report's data indicates a higher risk of climate-change intensified storms, wildfires, floods and drought.
"Every additional fraction of a degree of warming drives more harmful heatwaves, extreme rainfall events, intense droughts, melting of ice sheets, sea ice, and glaciers, heating of the ocean, and rising sea levels," the WMO said.
The WMO report follows the hottest 10 years ever on Earth.
The rapid warming of the Earth includes Arctic warming over the next five extended winters, which is expected to be more than three and a half times the global average.
The chance of seeing a global temperature rise of 3.6 degrees Fearenheit before 2030 is about 1%, but it was previously considered impossible.
"It is shocking that 2C is plausible," Adam Scaife of the Met Office, which played a leading role in compiling the data, said it was "shocking" that reaching that temperature was plausible.
"It has come out as only 1% in the next five years but the probability will increase as the climate warms," he said.
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