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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Ajit Niranjan Europe environment correspondent

Met Office: 2026 will bring heat more than 1.4C above preindustrial levels

The sun sets in Melbourne during a period of high temperatures
Scientists say 2025 is ‘virtually certain’ to end as the second or third-hottest year on record. Photograph: Ye Myo Khant/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

Next year will bring heat more than 1.4C above preindustrial levels, meteorologists project, as fossil fuel pollution continues to bake the Earth and fuel extreme weather.

The UK Met Office’s central forecast is slightly cooler than the 1.55C reached in 2024, the warmest year on record, but 2026 is set to be among the four hottest years dating back to 1850.

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