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This year will conclude as the second hottest on record, surpassed only by 2024. It continues a recent trend of exceptional, unexplained warming. The last three years have been, by a wide margin, the hottest ever recorded.

Together, the last three years averaged more than 1.5 degrees C warmer than preindustrial times, putting the world at least temporarily in breach of an international goal to limit warming below that level, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

The recent jump in warming, which exceeded the predictions of climate models, has puzzled scientists .…