Next year will continue the global warming trend with temperatures again likely to rise more than one degree above pre-industrial levels. 

According to the Met Office, 2020 will likely be 1.11C warmer than the average between 1850-1900, 

The year ahead is set to extend the series of the warmest years on record to six in a row.

Scientists say the strongest factor causing the rise is greenhouse gas emissions.

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The world first broke through one degree above pre-industrial temperatures back in 2015. 

Each year since then has seen temperatures close to or above this mark. 

The warmest year on record is 2016 when a strong El Niño made a significant difference.

This weather phenomenon sees sea surface temperatures increase in the central and eastern Pacific and it's associated with a range of impacts around the world, including the overall global level of warming.

According to the Met Office, the chances of a strong El Niño in 2020 are low. 

They forecast that the global average temperature next year will be in the range of 0.99C to 1.23C with a central estimate of 1.11C. The researchers say that the key factor will be emissions of CO2 and other warming gases.

"Natural events - such as El Niño-induced warming in the Pacific - influence the climate system, but in the absence of El Niño, this forecast gives a clear picture of the strongest factor causing temperatures to rise - greenhouse gas emissions," said Professor Adam Scaife, the Met Office head of long-range prediction.

According to researchers, carbon dioxide emissions this year have risen slightly, despite a drop in the use of coal.

The Global Carbon Project's annual analysis of emission trends suggests that CO2 will go up by 0.6% in 2019.

The rise is due to continuing strong growth in the utilisation of oil and gas.

The scale of emissions has a direct bearing on temperatures, scientists say.

Provisional figures released earlier this month by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) suggest 2019 is on course to be the second or third warmest year ever.

If those numbers hold, 2015-2019 would end up being the warmest five-year period on record.

The Met Office say they have confidence in their prediction for 2020 based on what's happened in previous years. 

This time last year they estimated that 2019 would be 1.10C above the 1850-1900 mark. The actual temperature recorded this year from January to October shows a global mean 1.11C.

Read more:

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-50839974

At this rate, warming has accelerated to 1 degree per decade... and there are another 8 decades before the turn of this century. DO THE SUMS.

Catastrophic fire conditions have been forecast in South Australia today as the state's stifling heatwave continues into a fourth day — with temperatures hitting almost 50 degrees Celsius in some areas yesterday.

• Temperatures hit almost 50 degrees Celsius in western parts of South Australia on Thursday
• Horse races scheduled for Friday evening have been cancelled due to the forecast
• The CFS says catastrophic fire conditions are expected in parts of the state on Friday

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said December temperature records had tumbled in more than a dozen locations, while some towns set all-time highs.

Parts of Adelaide sweltered through the hottest night on record, with the minimum reaching just 33.6C at 10:20pm at BOM's West Terrace site.

It was the highest minimum at the site since January 1939, when it reached 33.2C.

Senior forecaster Simon Timcke said it was a preliminary record, as the temperature could still drop, but that was very unlikely. 

He said the city had a hotter night at the Kent Town site in 2009, when it only dropped to 33.9C.

The minimum at Kent Town last night 33.6C at 11:30pm.

Nullarbor was the hottest spot around the state yesterday, reaching an incredible 49.9C — the fourth hottest temperature ever recorded in Australia, overtaking Eucla in WA which reached that mark just hours earlier.

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-19/catastrophic-fire-conditions-fore...

Note; these high temperatures are not due to the vagaries of weather patterns. They are due to GLOBAL WARMING piggybacking on the natural variations of weather patterns. This is what GLOBAL WARMING is about: adding "extra" heat to already hot conditions, as well as changing the rain patterns which apart from a few drops has seen much of Australia in RECORD drought, with little rain not even "wetting" rainforests. The scientific consensus is clear:

Australia's marketing expert Prime Minister has just had his first major product recall.

Scott Morrison's brand has been damaged, as he wings his way back to Australia from Hawaii, a trifle shop-soiled and humiliated.

And all because Morrison and his office thought they could engineer silence on a family holiday.

As so often in politics, it's the cover-up that gets you.

No-one begrudges the fellow going on holiday with his wife and lovely girls who have probably seen less of their dad this year than any in their short lives. 

And he's undoubtedly knackered from a hectic year in which he pulled off a miracle election win.

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-20/andrew-probyn-analysis-scott-morr...

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Backpedalling with vigour, the PM is only worried ABOUT HIS IMAGE, not about his rotten policies and the effect on the future, as Australia burns like NEVER BEFORE. This is SERIOUS politics, you f%$#@&g moron.

Leaving the country in the hands of the brain-dead National leader was not a good look, especially at time of emergency. Scumbughawaiison should resign. He won't, because he's full of his own self-importance and will find new slogans to justify his cock-ups...

THE PLANET IS WARMING UP BECAUSE OF THE BURNING OF FOSSIL FUELS. Is this too hard to understand? Yes, I know, global warming isn't mentioned in the biblical floods... Is your hand sign in the picture at top the new woke sign for wanking?

And your win at the last election WASN'T A MIRACLE. It was all due to Rupert Murdoch and Clive Palmer, plus the Labor Party shooting itself in the left foot...

While the mainstream media remains quiet on our PM's absence, social media has revealed public criticism over the timing of his holiday, writes Professor John Quiggin.

ONE OF THE STANDARD tropes of current political commentary in recent years has been the adverse effects of social media and the “24-hour news cycle”. It is routinely claimed that the careful analysis and investigative journalism that used to prevail has been replaced by instant reactions to online news.

It’s interesting to see how this has played out in the case of Scott Morrison’s overseas holiday, taken in the middle of one of the worst crisis this country has ever seen. There was no announcement of his departure and his location remains undisclosed. A perfect case, one might think, for the press to prove its worth.

On Monday 16 December, Twitter began lighting up with rumours that Morrison had gone on holiday to Hawaii. While lacking the journalistic skills of the Press Gallery, the Twitterverse was able to establish the basics. It was quickly possible to determine that Michael McCormack had been appointed as acting Prime Minister, a fact that some might consider newsworthy in itself.

Read more:

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/mainstream-me...

Michael McCormack has been as useful as a boil on your butt or as efficient as a dead spanner crab to tighten a loose bolt at the back end of your ute. That's why Scumbuggerson is coming back in a hurry with a bagful of apologetic slogans to quieten the quiet Australians who could awaken from their quietness, because their torpor is disturbed by their house burning down due to global warming... The rest of them (house safe from the fires) are doped to the eyeballs with evangelical prayers and thoughts (whatever these thingies are).

The thoughts used to be "where the bloody hell are you, aunt Mavis?" and now it's "how good is Waikiki?"...