Record hot years now more frequent: Study

Melbourne: Human-caused global warming is significantly increasing the rate at which hot temperature records are being broken around the world, a study has found.

Global annual temperature records show there were 17 record hot years from 1861 to 2005. Researchers at University of Melbourne in Australia examined whether these temperature records are being broken more often and if so, whether human-caused global warming is to blame. The results show human influence has greatly increased the likelihood of record-breaking hot years occurring on a global scale.

Without human-caused climate change, there should only have been an average of seven record hot years from 1861 to 2005, not 17, researchers said.

Human-caused climate change at least doubled the odds of having a record-breaking hot year from 1926 to 1945 and from 1967 onwards, according to the study.

The study also projects that if greenhouse gas emissions remain high, the chance of seeing new global temperature records will continue to increase. By 2100, every other year will be a record breaker, on average, according to the study published in the journal Earth's Future.

The new findings show how climate change is visibly influencing Earth's temperature, said Andrew King, a research fellow at the University of Melbourne.

Record hot years have been occurring more frequently in recent decades. 2014 was the hottest year on record since 1880, but that record was quickly broken in 2015 and again in 2016.