WASHINGTON — While 2018 was the fourth-warmest year on record, British meteorologists are predicting the next five years will be much hotter, maybe even record-breaking.

Two U.S. agencies, the United Kingdom Met Office and the World Meteorological Organization each came to the same conclusion last week: 2018 was the fourth-warmest year on record behind 2016, 2015 and 2017.

The U.S. government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said 2018’s average temperature was 58.42 degrees, which is 1.42 degrees warmer than the 20th century average. Much of Europe had its warmest years on record. Records go back to 1880.

NASA and NOAA climate scientists said even though 2018 was a tad cooler than the three previous years that’s mostly due to random weather variations.

Using computer simulations, the British weather office forecasts the next five years will average somewhere between 58.51 and 59.49 degrees. That would be warmer than the last four years.