In its latest five-year forecast, up to 2020, the Met Officehas said the Antarctic ocean is expected to cool over the period.
The North Atlantic ocean is also likely to see a minor cooling – meaning lower temperatures in the USA, Europe and even north Africa.
The forecast, which is said to be its most accurate five-year prediction yet because it uses the same system as its short-term forecasts, also predicts that average global temperature rises will not reach the upper-most predictions accepted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The forecast said a trend of hottest years on record, including 2015, is likely to end next year.
But overall the Met Office said the trend would continue to be a gradual creeping upwards over a longer timespan, so the threat of climate change remains real.
A Met Office spokesman said: “There is some indication of continued cool conditions in the Southern Ocean and of relatively cool conditions in the north Atlantic.
