This year is on track to be the second warmest since records began in the 1860s, experts said this morning.
"2007 is looking as though it will be the second warmest behind 1998," said Phil Jones, head of the Climatic Research Unit at Britain's University of East Anglia, which provides data to the UN's International Meteorological Organisation (IMO).
Mr Jones had predicted late last year that 2007 could surpass 1998 as the warmest year on record due to rising concentrations of greenhouse gases emitted mainly by burning fossil fuels and an El Niño warming of the Pacific.
Almost all climate experts say that the trend is towards more droughts, floods, heatwaves and more powerful storms. But they say that individual extreme events are not normally a sign of global warming because weather is, by its nature, chaotic.
The 10 warmest years in the past 150 years have all been since 1990.
NASA, which uses slightly different data than the IMO, places 2005 as warmest ahead of 1998.
Over 500 people have died in storms and floods in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India in the past week.
Temperatures in Greece reached 46 degrees this week, while torrential rains have battered northern England and parts of Texas, where Austin has had its wettest year on record so far.