Geneva, 22/12/2017 (MAP) – The 2017 global land and ocean temperature will likely end among the three warmest years on record, and is expected to be the warmest year without a warming El Niño, said the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in a statement.

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, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Arctic and Antarctic sea ice coverage remain at near record lows, it said.

NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) and the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Copernicus Climate Change Service said the past meteorological year (December 2016 to November 2017) is the second warmest on record.

“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,” said WMO senior scientist Omar Baddour. “Along with rising temperatures, we are seeing more extreme weather with huge socio-economic impacts,” he said.