The World Meteorological Organization reported that this decade will probably rank as the warmest since records started being kept in 1850.

And it says this year could be one of the five warmest years ever recorded by climatologists.

If there were any rays of sunshine poking through the gloomy forecast, it was that only Canada and the United States experienced cooler conditions than average.

January's average temperature in the Great Lakes region was colder than normal.

But the UN agency still noted troubling signs of a warming planet across Canada.

Vancouver and Victoria set hot-weather records in late July. A record number of tornadoes whipped across Ontario, killing a record number of people. And avalanches were almost double the yearly average for the past decade and the worst since 2002-03, making this year one of the deadliest.

The warming effects have also been felt in the North.

Arctic sea ice has been melting for the past three decades. The biggest thaws come during the summer melt season.

But the agency says Arctic sea ice retreated more between 2007-09 than in any other period on record.