Hot, hotter, hottest: it seems every year is determined to outdo its predecessors.
The United Nations weather agency has released a report showing global temperatures are climbing and weather events intensifying, as the world warms.
Deputy Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), Elena Manaenkova, says 2011-2015 was the hottest five-year period since records began.
"The conclusions are very clear that that was the warmest five-year period on record. We also confirm that 2015 was the year when the global surface temperature exceeded one degree, and it links to the debate during this climate conference and the Paris Agreement targets."
2015 was a particularly noteworthy year, claiming the title of hottest individual year and the first in which average temperatures were one degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
The Paris agreement had set a target of limiting warming to ideally just 1.5 degrees higher than pre-industrial times, although pledges so far are failing to meet this.
Meanwhile the amount of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, soared to 400 parts per million for the first time.
If long-term trends are right, however, these records aren't likely to last very long.
Senior scientist Omar Baddour says he - and others - believe climate change is also playing an increasing part in the occurrence of natural disasters.
"From this report there were about 79 extreme (weather) events which have been analysed through the period of 2011-2015, and it comes out from the analysis that at least 50 per cent of those extreme events have been attributed either directly or indirectly to the fact of man-made climate change."
Incidents include:
- a 2011-2012 famine in the Horn of Africa in which more than a quarter of a million people died,
- 2013's Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in which almost 8,000 people died;
- and Superstorm Sandy in the United States.
Mr Baddour says both the intensity and frequency of disasters are being affected.
"In addition to that some of the extreme events have seen the probability of occurrence multiplied by 10. That means, a heatwave, for example, which used to occur in a 50-year cycle can now occur in a five-year cycle."
Many governments are now placing their hopes in the 2015 Paris Agreement on global warming.
So far 100 nations have formally joined the deal, including the European Union and major emitters China and the United States.
The US, Australia and many oil-dependent Gulf states are the worst per capita emission offenders.
Country delegates are meeting in the Moroccan capital, Marrakech, over two weeks to work out the finer points of the deal, as well as how to measure and keep track of emissions so as to hold countries accountable.
The WMO's head of Climate Prediction and Adaptation, Maxx Dilley, says full commitment to the agreement is vital.
"The rates of ice melting, and the rates of greenhouse gas increases, and the rates of temperature increases, they're a very serious matter. And (even) if you take off your scientist hat and you look at it, it's very concerning. And as we've already said, the Paris Agreement is a hugely important step and now what happens next is going to be even more important."
