2017: Another record-breaking year for heat and extreme weather

This report reviews the trends in average global temperature and the extreme weather events that occurred in 2017. The report finds that the global temperature averaged over the last five years (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017) has been confirmed as the highest ever on record for any five-year period. This record is part of a sharp, long-term upswing in global temperatures, with 17 out of the 18 years hottest years on record all occurring in this century.

Key findings:

• The 2013-2017 period has been the hottest five-year period ever recorded.
• 2017 was the third hottest year ever recorded, and the hottest year in which temperatures have not been boosted by an El Niño event.
• The world’s 10 hottest years on record have all occurred since 1998 and 17 of the 18 hottest years on record have occurred this century.
• 2017 was Australia’s third hottest year on record.
• Seven of the ten hottest years on record in Australia have happened since 2005. Five of the seven have occurred the past five years.
• 2017 broke records for hot, dry conditions with more than 260 heat and low rainfall recordsbroken throughout winter.
• The increasing global heat, driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, exacerbated extreme weather events around the globe and in Australia in 2017.