India, July 18 -- Around half of 2026 is still to come. This means that any answer to the question posed above is likely to be uncertain. Answering this question with any degree of certainty is also best left to climate scientists, who are better equipped to handle it. However, a layman's understanding of the possible answer - this year can easily rank second warmest, although being the warmest is not impossible - can help us understand some important things about the climate crisis.

The short summary of the climate crisis implications of the possible answer is as follows. The first thing the possible answer shows is that breaching the 1.5degC threshold in particular months does not necessarily need an El Nino. The second thing it shows ...