The current warmest year on record is 2016, but the latest forecast based on Met Office computer models suggest a new annual record is likely within the next five years.

Individual years from 2020 to 2024 are predicted to be between 1.06 °C and 1.62 °C above pre-industrial conditions, and it is ‘likely’ the current record - of 1.16 °C, set in 2016, - will be beaten.

Considering the coming five-year period as a whole, average temperatures are expected to be between 1.15 °C and 1.46 °C above pre-industrial levels. This compares to the last five years (2015-2019) which showed average warming of 1.09 °C, and was the warmest five-year period on record.

These temperatures are consistent with continued high levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases.