2023 recorded many of the hottest days on land and sea | Data

2023 was the hottest year on record, with record-breaking heat in Europe, North America, and China, driven by greenhouse gases.

The year 2023 was the hottest on record and likely the warmest in 1,00,000 years, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). Regions such as Europe, North America, and China experienced record-breaking heat.

Several factors made 2023 the warmest year on record, with escalating levels of greenhouse gases playing the biggest role. Additional factors contributing to the record included natural phenomena such as El Nino, a temporary warming in the central Pacific affecting global weather patterns, as well as other oscillations in the Arctic, Southern, and Indian Oceans.

The global average temperature in 2023 was 14.98°C, which was 0.17°C higher than the previous highest annual average in 2016. The planet was also 1.48° Celsius warmer than the pre-industrial average (1850-1900), very close to the 1.5°C mark that countries agreed not to cross in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Chart 1 | The chart shows the monthly global surface air temperature anomalies (°C) relative to the 1991-2020 average.

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According to the global climate highlights published by C3S, each month from June to December in 2023 was warmer than the corresponding months in any previous year on record. The temperature deviation of 0.93°C recorded in September 2023, compared to the September average in 1991–2020, was the largest deviation recorded in any month in any year. Also, October, November and December 2023, each with a temperature deviation of 0.85°C above average, ranked second-largest in terms of deviations.

Chart 2 | The chart shows the number of days in a year when the temperature deviation compared to the pre-industrial average was in the following ranges: 1°C to 1.25°C, 1.25°C to 1.5°C, and 1.5°C or more.