Climate change twinned with the peaking of the El Niño weather phenomenon are expected to drive the average temperatures in the UK to their highest point ever recorded. In, 2014 we witnessed the UK achieving the highest average temperatures ever recorded, and then in 2015 it beat that to claim the title for the warmest year on record. Now, 2016 is highly likely to be crowned the highest come the end of the year. The Met Office have said that there is only a 5% chance that 2015 would remain the warmest by this time next year.
El Niño is a natural cycle of warming in the Pacific Ocean which has a global impact on weather. The current episode is the biggest since 1998 and is peaking now, but the global temperature effects take time to spread around the globe. “We expect the peak warming from El Niño in the 2016 figures,” said Scaife.