2017 set to be among top three hottest years: World Meteorological Organization

GENEVA, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Global land and ocean temperatures in 2017 will likely end among the three warmest years on record, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said Tuesday.

The year 2017 is expected to be the warmest year without a warming El Nino, said the global weather office.

"The first 11 months of the year were the third warmest on record, behind 2016 and 2015, with much-warmer-than-average conditions engulfing much of the world's land and ocean surfaces," said WMO media officer Clare Nullis.

She said the source of the data is the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) which said that Arctic and Antarctic sea ice coverage remained at near record lows.

WMO senior scientist Omar Baddour said, "What is more important than the ranking of an individual year is the overall, long-term trend of warming since the late 1970s, and especially this century. Along with rising temperatures, we are seeing more extreme weather with huge socio-economic impacts."

During November 2017, warmer-than-average temperatures dominated across much of the world's land and ocean surfaces, with the most notable temperature departures from average across the Northern Hemisphere. Enditem