Global temperatures likely to surge to record levels over next five years: WMO.

UNITED NATIONS -- Global temperatures are likely to surge to record levels in the next five years, fueled by heat-trapping greenhouse gases and a naturally occurring El Nino weather pattern, an update issued by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a Geneva-based UN agency, warned on Wednesday.

There is a 66 per cent likelihood that the annual average near-surface global temperature between 2023 and 2027, will be more than 1.5AdegC above pre-industrial levels for at least one year.

And there is a 98 per cent likelihood that at least one of the next five years, and the five-year period, will be the warmest on record.

'A warming El Nino is expected to develop in the coming months and this will combine with human-induced climate change to push global temperatures into uncharted territory,' WMO chief Petteri Taalas said in a statement.

'This will have far-reaching repercussions for health, food security, water management and the environment. We need to be prepared,' he said

Some key facts:

-- Typically, El Nino increases global temperatures in the year after it develops, in this case, that means 2024.

-- There is a 98 per cent chance of at least one in the next five years beating the temperature record set in 2016, when there was an exceptionally strong El Nino.

-- Arctic warming is disproportionately high. Compared to the 1991-2020 average, the temperature anomaly is predicted to be more than three times as large as the global expected anomaly when considering the next five northern hemisphere extended winters.

-- Predicted rain patterns for the May to September 2023-2027 average, compared to the 1991-2020 average, suggest increased rainfall in the Sahel...