2017 set to be one of top three hottest years on record

Data so far this year points to 2017 continuing a long-term trend of record breaking temperatures around the world, says World Meteorological Organization

2017 is set to be one of the hottest three years on record, provisional data suggests, confirming yet again a warming trend that scientists say bears the fingerprints of human actions.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said temperatures in the first nine months of this year were unlikely to have been higher than 2016, when there was a strong El Nino weather system, but higher than anything before 2015.