Met Office says 2012 9th warmest year on record

Forecasters say 2012 was the ninth warnest year in record.

The prediction follows provisional figures for the observed temperature in 2012, published by the Met Office and University of East Anglia.

These showed that global average temperatures in 2012 were 0.45 °C above the long term average based on data from the three international global temperature datasets used by the World Meteorological Organization and  2012 is currently ranked the 9th warmest year on record.

The global average temperature for 2012 falls well within the range predicted by the Met Office for 2012 of between 0.34 °C and 0.62 °C, with a most likely value of 0.48 °C above the long term average.

This is consistent with the Met Office forecast statement that 2012 was expected to be warmer than 2011, but not as warm as the record year of 2010.