Record breaking temperatures in 2019, warns Met Office.

A new report by the Met Office has found that 2019 could be a record-breaking year for global temperatures due to climate change.

The British Met Office has warned of record-breaking temperatures in 2019.

The Met Office forecasts the global average temperature for 2019 to be between 0.98 degrees Celsius and 1.22 degrees Celsius, with a central estimate of 1.10 degrees Celsius.

Since 1850, 2016 is the warmest year on record with a central estimate of 1.15 degrees Celsius above the baseline.

The forecast is based on modest warming from El Nino combined with much larger effects due to rising levels of greenhouse gases.

Read the ClimateAction story by Rachel Cooper - “Record breaking temperatures in 2019, warns Met Office.”

Outsourcing solutions to 'greatest challenge facing the planet'

CSIRO is considering outsourcing climate modelling work to Britain - a step a senior executive conceded would reduce Australia's strengths in the field.

Grilled by Labor and Greens senators at a Senate inquiry in Hobart over cuts to up to half its climate research workforce, CSIRO executive Alex Wonhas said the organisation was considering contracting some work to counterparts in the British Met Office.

It is understood CSIRO executives hope signing a contract with leaders in international climate change research at the Met Office will blunt international criticism of its climate research cuts.

That criticism included a New York Times editorial on Friday, which described the cuts as based on "a deplorable misunderstanding of the importance of basic research into what is arguably the greatest challenge facing the planet".

Read the story by Peter Hannam and Adam Morton in today’s Melbourne Age - “CSIRO looks to Britain to outsource climate research.”

The wettest December ever in the UK

Ducks float by doorways in what was
the UK's wettest December ever.

December was the wettest month ever recorded in the UK, with almost double the rain falling than average, according to data released by the Met Office on Tuesday.

Last month saw widespread flooding which continued into the new year, with 21 flood alerts in England and Wales and four in Scotland in force on Tuesday morning.

The record for the warmest December in the UK was also smashed last month, with an average temperature of 7.9C, 4.1C higher than the long-term average.

Read The Guardian story - “December 2015 was the wettest month ever recorded in UK.”

Met Office making climate change publicly palatable

Climate change is a complex beast and yet, the UK Met Office worked hard to simplify those intricacies to make them publicly palatable.

Just last night a report “Human dynamics of climate change” researched and assembled by the Met Office was launched in Melbourne by video link.

The event, which attracted about 150 people, was organized by the University of Melbourne’s EU Centre of Shared Complex Challenges and beyond the video link feature presentations by Association Professor Malte Meinshausen and Dr Betrand Timbal.

A few hard-copies of the report were available at the Woodward Conference Centre, but people can see it online.

Met Office explains 'climate change'

The term 'climate change' refers to a change in the average state of our climate and/or the variability of its properties.

While there are noticeable highs and lows in year to year data, over longer periods of time there is a discernible warming trend across the globe.

The United Kingdom’s Met Office explains “climate change”.