--- title: Climate Change: Global Warming Speeding Up After Hiatus description: This year will likely be the hottest on record, the latest suggestion that the so-called global warming hiatus has ended. canonical: https://time.com/4033315/global-warming-speed-up/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-14T16:28:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:57:49.717Z article:section: Science og:title: Prepare for the Two Hottest Years on Record, Report Says og:description: This year will likely be the hottest on record, the latest suggestion that the so-called global warming hiatus has ended. og:url: https://time.com/4033315/global-warming-speed-up/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf50d748d51bee336/69886378cf40a8e052c3fae2/hot-streets.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5616 og:image:height: 3159 og:image:alt: Hot Streets og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Prepare for the Two Hottest Years on Record, Report Says twitter:description: This year will likely be the hottest on record, the latest suggestion that the so-called global warming hiatus has ended. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf50d748d51bee336/69886378cf40a8e052c3fae2/hot-streets.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Prepare for the Two Hottest Years on Record, Report Says > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ## Video: Is Climate Change Causing Extreme Weather? [Watch (HLS stream): Is Climate Change Causing Extreme Weather?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/LQufbOt9.m3u8) (2:04)  _Published 2013-11-11. Is the frequency of extreme weather events a sign that global warming is gaining pace and exceeding predictions? Climate scientist Bill Patzert explains._  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Sep 14, 2015 4:28 PM UTC  Business People Walking in Sunset Light Business People Walking in Sunset Light Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Sep 14, 2015 4:28 PM UTC This year and next will likely be the hottest on record, new research suggests, the latest sign that a so-called hiatus in global warming has ended. The [report](http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/media/pdf/8/c/Changes%5FIn%5FThe%5FClimate%5FSystem.pdf), published by the British Met Office, predicts that this year’s occurrence of El Niño will exacerbate global warming, leading to the hottest years on record in 2015 and 2016\. El Niño, a climate phenomenon that occurs sporadically, increases rain in some ares in the Pacific region while also driving up temperatures. Recent [forecasts](http://time.com/3996227/el-nino-forecast/) have suggested that the strongest El Niño ever recorded has developed and will likely last into next year. The two years of record temperatures will be sufficient to end a slowdown in temperature change that occurred in the first decade of the 21st century, according to the report. While global temperatures continued to rise between 1998 and 2012, they did so at a rate less than half as fast as between 1951 and 2012, according to a 2013 [report](https://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/wg1/WG1AR5%5FChapter09%5FFINAL.pdf) from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Scientists have explained that slowdown as the consequence of volcanic eruptions and [climate patterns](http://time.com/3161971/global-warming-slowdown-climate-change/) in oceans, among other things. **Read More:** [Here’s What Using the World’s Remaining Fossil Fuels Would Do to the Antarctic Ice Shelf](http://time.com/4030151/antarctica-melting-ice/) But whatever the reason for the hiatus, the Met Office, the U.K’s national weather service, says temperatures are again rising rapidly. [Last year](http://time.com/3671519/2014-record-high/) was the hottest on record, as were the [first six months](http://time.com/3966587/2015-climate-change-heat/) of 2015. Climate change skeptics have pointed to the hiatus as evidence that policies designed to combat global warming are unwarranted. But Met Office researcher Adam Scaife, a report author, says that the influence of changing climate patterns doesn’t diminish the impact of humans on the climate. “A lot of things can occur without the influence of human beings,” Scaife told a conference call for journalists, according to [Reuters](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/13/us-climatechange-summit-britain-idUSKCN0RD0YN20150913). “However, they are now occurring on top of the influence coming from man’s activity.” The findings come in advance of a United Nations conference on climate change this November. Climate advocates hope the summit will yield the first ever agreement binding countries to concrete measures to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Extreme weather was more frequent in recent years. Is it a sign that global warming is gaining pace and exceeding predictions? Now, has extreme weather been more frequent in recent years? The evidence is definitely to the contrary. The United States has always had extreme weather. We look back on our weather history. It's been punishing. Floods, droughts, tornadoes, hurricanes, great forest fires. Is global warming happening? No doubt about it. We're living in a warmer world. We're living in a melting world, sea levels are rising. Now, direct evidence of the foot print or the finger print of global warming, we're seeing more frequent, more intense and longer lasting heat waves. As far as hurricanes, tornadoes, forest fires, floods and drought; the evidence is definitely not in. The consensus among almost all scientists is, is that it's a small finger print, not a large foot print. But what is true is that in this country, in the United States, we live in many areas with great risk to drought, [ NOISE ] to tornadoes, to hurricanes. And so part of the dialog is not only extreme weather and global warming but is the amount of risk we can tolerate. Now, looking to the future, global change, global warming it definitely is accelerating and it will have an impact on extreme weather. But at this point, not much. 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