Temperature rise is locked in until 2040 at least, and the sort of record temperatures that we saw in 2015 could become an average by 2025, according to research published in the Bulletin of American Meteorological Society that analysed seasonal temperatures across Australia, Europe, Asia and North America. Average global temperatures are set to have a new normal, but some seasonal and regional temperatures might not. If the lowest emissions pathway of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (RCP2.8) is followed, it may be possible to avoid reaching a new normal at regional level.
The World Meteorological Organisation reported in November that 2016 looks set to be yet another “record temperature” year.