2022 was the sixth-warmest year globally, according to analysis of data stretching back to 1850, the Met Office says. 2022 is the ninth year in succession that has equalled or exceeded 1.0 °C above the pre-industrial period (1850-1900).
The global average temperature for 2022 was 1.16 °C above the pre-industrial baseline; 0.04 °C warmer than the value for 2021. The forecaster says this means 2022 is nominally the sixth warmest year in the HadCRUT5 global temperature dataset, which runs from 1850.
The Met Office annual global temperature forecast for 2023 suggests this year will be one of the Earth’s hottest years on record. It says this is because a run of "La Niña" winters is likely to end later this year, raising the prospect of even higher global temperatures.
Dr Colin Morice, Climate Monitoring and Research Scientist with the Met Office, said: said: “2022 was another near-record year for global average temperatures, despite the slight cooling influence of La Niña: a pattern of climate variability in the tropical Pacific that typically acts to suppress global temperatures. Climate variability has always imparted an influence on global temperature, making some years slightly warmer or cooler than others.
"The influence of natural variability throughout the 173-year-long observed temperature record is small compared to the ongoing warming due to human-induced climate change.”
The Met Office says even the years with a temporary cooling influence from La Niña, such as 2022, are now much warmer than all years before 2015 - even those that had been boosted by a warm influence from El Niño. 2016 - which experienced a significant El Niño event - is currently the warmest year in the series since 1850.
The World Meteorological Organization uses six international data sets to provide an authoritative assessment of global temperature change. Since the 1980s, each decade has been warmer than the previous one.
Professor Tim Osborn, of the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit, told the Met Office: "Our global temperature data show that 2022 was consistent with the long-term warming of 0.2 °C per decade that we have observed over the last 50 years. Unless we can take action that slows this rate of warming, the world’s climate will reach 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels within the next 15 years."
