Cooler 2017 likely after record heat in 2016

Oslo, August 17 

The Earth is likely to get relief in 2017 from record scorching temperatures that bolstered governments' resolve last year in reaching a deal to combat climate change, scientists said on Wednesday.

July was the hottest single month since records began in the 19th century, driven by greenhouse gases and an El Nino event warming the Pacific. And NASA this week cited a 99 per cent chance that 2016 will be the warmest year, ahead of 2015 and 2014.

In a welcome break, a new annual record is unlikely in 2017 since the effect of El Nino, a phenomenon that warms the eastern Pacific and can disrupt weather patterns worldwide every two-seven years, is fading.

"Next year is probably going to be cooler than 2016," said Phil Jones of the Climatic Research Unit at Britain's University of East Anglia. He added there was no sign of a strong La Nina, El Nino's opposite that can cool the planet.

In 1998, a powerful El Nino led to a record year of heat and it took until 2005 to surpass the warmth. That hiatus led some people who doubt mainstream findings that climate change has a human cause to conclude that global warming had stopped. — Reuters