2014 set to be warmest year ever recorded in history

Early estimates have revealed that 2014 is set to be warmest year ever recorded in history.

According to the report, in the first 10 months of the year, the global average air temperature was about 0.57 Celsius above the long-term average, while the first eleven months in the UK have produced an average temperature 1.6C above the long-term, the BBC reported.

A separate study by the UK Met Office has revealed that the observed temperatures would be highly unlikely without the influence of greenhouse gases produced by humans.

The Secretary-General of the WMO, Michel Jarraud, said that the preliminary data for 2014 was consistent with what we expect from a changing climate and the provisional information for 2014 means that fourteen of the fifteen warmest years on record have all occurred in the 21st century.

Jarraud added that the record-breaking heat combined with torrential rainfall and floods destroyed livelihoods and ruined lives and what's particularly unusual and alarming this year are the high temperatures of vast areas of the ocean surface, including in the northern hemisphere.