With 2014 likely to be declared the world's hottest year on record, the last thing the planet needs is a climate shift to turbo-charge the global warming already under way. While it's an early call, a measure of surface temperature differences in the Pacific shifted to a positive reading in the five months of November, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ? the longest such run in almost 12 years. Known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the El Nino-like pattern typically lasts 15-30 years and is understood to operate as an accelerator on global surface temperatures during its positive phase ? and a brake during its negative phase ? as the ocean takes up fluctuating amounts of the extra heat being trapped by rising greenhouse gas emissions. "It certainly could be an early sign of a change but you'd probably want to see another year or two before it's a genuine phase shift," Matthew England, a professor at the University of NSW's Climate Change Research Centre, said. "This could be the start of another ramping up of warming."

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