Human-drive global warming is worse than we thought Tim Robberts/Getty

An oversight in historical weather records means we have underestimated how much the climate warmed last century. The finding means we are 0.1°C closer to passing the internationally-agreed limit of 2°C than we thought.

“Global warming has been stronger than we think,” says Rasmus Benestad of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute in Oslo, who led the analysis.

The problem stems from where the first weather stations were set up around the world. “At the start of the temperature records, you have most measurements from Europe and North America, …