With the Atlantic hurricane season set to begin this Sunday, June 1, and experts predicting an above-average season for storms, forecasters are now saying to get ready for years of record-breaking heat. The World Meteorological Organization, in coordination with the U.K. Meteorological Office, released a five-year climate outlook Wednesday, reporting an 80% chance that Earth will break another record for the highest average annual temperature within that time frame.Impact of hotter summersCornell University climate scientist Natalie Mahowald told The Associates Press that higher global temperatures will translate into more powerful storms. “Higher global mean temperatures may sound abstract, but it translates in real life to a higher chance of extreme weather: stronger hurricanes, stronger precipitation, droughts,” Mahowald explained. “And that will lead to people dying.”Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, went a step further, warning that even a tenth of a degree in additional warming increases the frequency of more extreme events – from heatwaves and wildfires to floods, hurricanes and typhoons. How hot will it get?Since the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, the global benchmark has been to limit warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. But scientists now say there is an 86% chance that this threshold will be surpassed at least once by 2030. That projection is based on 200 computer simulations and global climate models analyzed by forecasting centers around the world.2024 was the hottest year on recordFor evidence, scientists say look no further than last year, when Earth recorded its hottest year ever. It was the first time ever the Earth was above the anticipated warming threshold. The result, according to climate scientists, was 27 weather disasters in the United States alone, which cost more than $180 billion in damages.Samantha Burgess, climate lead at the European Commission’s Copernicus Climate Service, explained: “These high global temperatures, coupled with record global atmospheric water vapor levels in 2024, meant unprecedented heatwaves and heavy rainfall events, causing misery for millions of people.“The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says there is no indication that these trends will reverse. In fact, the data shows a steady rise in global temperatures dating back to the start of modern record-keeping in 1850.