This year is the seventh-warmest since records started in 1850, and rising sea levels caused by climate change are aggravating the impact of storms such as Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, the U.N. weather agency said Wednesday. More greenhouse gases in the atmosphere mean a warmer future, and more extreme weather was inevitable, World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said in a statement issued during climate talks among nearly 200 countries in Warsaw, Poland. In its annual climate report, the WMO said the first nine months of the year tied with the same period of 2003 as seventh-warmest, with average global land and ocean surface temperatures 0.48 degree Celsius (0.86 degree Fahrenheit) above the 1961-1990 average. This year was likely to end among the top 10 warmest years on record, it said. The hottest year on record is 2010.
