Context:

• The decade from 2014 to 2023 could end up being the warmest in over 150 years of records. 
• The figures released by the UK Met Office are based on data from a number of sources including the latest publication of provisional figures for 2018. Records for annual global average temperature extend back to 1850.
• The global average temperature between now and 2023 is predicted to remain high. For the next five years, it will be one degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
• Averaged over the five-year period 2019-2023, forecast patterns suggest enhanced warming is likely over much of the globe, especially over land and at high northern latitudes, particularly the Arctic region.
• 2018 is cited to be the fourth warmest year on record globally. It follows 2015, 2016 and 2017, which are the three warmest years in the 169-year record.
• The effects of climate change are not limited to surface temperature. Warming of the climate system is seen across a range of climate indicators that build a picture of global changes occurring across the land, atmosphere, oceans and ice.