Context-   Report finds 2018 was the fourth-warmest on record since the mid-to-late- 1800s and sea levels were the highest on record

• The gases heating the planet in 2018 were higher than humans have ever recorded, according to an authoritative new report from the American Meteorological Society and the US government.
• Greenhouse gas levels topped 60 years of modern measurements and 800,000 years of ice core data, the study found.
• The global annual average for carbon dioxide – which is elevated because of human activities like driving cars and burning fuel – was 407.4 parts per million, 2.4 ppm higher than in 2017.
• The report finds 2018 was the fourth-warmest on record since the mid-to-late- 1800s. Temperatures were .3C to .4C higher than the average between 1981 and 2010.
• Sea levels were the highest on record, as global heating melted land-based ice and expanded the oceans. Sea surface temperatures were also near a record high.
• Arctic and Antarctic sea ice extent was near a record low, and glaciers continued to melt and lose mass for the 30th year in a row.
• Despite recent massive wildfires in the US and the Arctic, 2018 fire activity around the globe was actually the lowest on record. That is because humans have turned the savannas that have burned frequently into agricultural areas.
• The Caribbean saw coral reef bleaching and South America experienced seven extreme snowfall events. Europe was a hotspot, with its second warmest year since at least 1950. And Australia had its third warmest year since 1910, with a rapidly intensifying and expanding drought and significant fires.
• Warmest years- 2016>2015>2017>2018 (source:NOAA)
• The forecast for coming years points to more of the same. The U.K.’s Met Office predict that 2019 will likely be even warmer  than 2018, at least in part driven by a developing El Nino event , which nearly always bump global temperatures up.