Warming world

This year is almost certain to be the warmest on record, meteorologists are
predicting. With three-quarters of the year gone, average temperatures across
the world for 1997 are 0.38 °C higher than the average for the period
1961-1990. “This is the same as in 1995,” which set the previous record, says
David Parker of Britain’s Meteorological Office in Bracknell. “But with an El
Niño in full flow, there is a strong warming trend, so a record is almost
certain.”