It’s official: 2023 was the hottest year on record. Independent analyses by NASA, NOAA, WMO, Copernicus and the UK Met Office all reached the same conclusion, with the year also breaking a slew of other records and experiencing a string of severe weather events across the globe.
Every organization operates with a slightly distinct set of data and methodologies, leading to slight discrepancies in the precise figures they obtain.
Nevertheless, all five concurred that 2023 exhibited significantly higher temperatures than the previous record-holder, 2016.
NASA found that global average surface temperatures were 1.2 °C (2.1 °F) above the baseline period it uses – 1951 to 1980. NOAA gets its average across the whole 20th century, finding that 2023 was 1.18 °C (2.12 °F) higher than that.
Copernicus, WMO and the Met Office use a pre-industrial baseline of 1850 to 1900, finding 2023 to be 1.45 to 1.48° C (2.61 to 2.66 °F) higher than that. Regionally, Africa, North and South America experienced their hottest year on record, while it was the second-hottest in Europe and Asia.
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Oceans suffered too. Global ocean surface temperatures saw record highs every month between April and December, while Antarctica saw its sea ice reach the smallest ever maximum and minimum extents.
Upper ocean heat content was also the highest on record – a value that measures how much heat is stored in the upper 2,000 m (6,560 ft) of the ocean. That leads to the atmosphere retaining more of its heat and water vapor, in turn leading to more extreme weather.
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