The average temperature in 2006 is likely to be among the hottest since records began over 150 years ago.
Autumn and early winter temperature records have been set from the Alps to Moscow this year, hurting ski resorts, but extending growing seasons.
The Arctic may be close to a tipping point that sees all-year-round ice disappear very rapidly in the next few decades, US scientists have warned.
This year the Arctic Sea ice shrank to near record lows in the summer.
Experts amassing data regard all the indicators as an example of global warming in action. 2006 could be the year the world sat up and took notice. Is it too late?
Our only hope might be that the climatologists have got it all wrong. But what are the chances of that happening?