In publishing its annual global report, the Copernicus Climate Change ServiceThe European Commission's report reveals that 2023 has closed as the hottest year in history, surpassing the 2016 record.
This earth observation program of the European Union emphasizes that the record temperatures that have been presented since June led 2023 to close as a the warmest year on record, by ending with a global average temperature of 14.98°C, that's 0.17°C higher than that recorded in 2016.
"2023 is confirmed as the warmest calendar year based on global temperature data records going back to 1850," Copernicus states in its report.
The agency adds that 2023 was 0.60°C warmer than the 1991-2020 average and 1.48°C warmer than the pre-industrial level of 1850-1900.
"A 12-month period ending in January or February 2024 is likely to exceed the pre-industrial level by 1.5°C," he advances.
A year of records
Copernicus points out in its annual report the unprecedented data that the global climate yielded in 2023, highlighting the following:
- Each month from June through December 2023 was warmer than the corresponding month of any previous year.
- July and August 2023 were the two warmest months on record. The boreal summer (June-August) was also the warmest season on record.
- In September 2023, the temperature deviation above the 1991-2020 average was greater than in any month of any year in the ERA5 dataset (0.93 °C greater than the 1991-2020 average).
- October, November and December 2023, each with a temperature 0.85 °C above average, ranked joint second in terms of temperature deviation above the 1991-2020 average.
The agency of the European Commission stresses that almost every day since the beginning of June was the warmest in the data record for that particular day of the year.
Moreover, he adds, 2023 marks the first time that every day within a year has exceeded 1°C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial level for that time of year.
"Using ERA5, this monitoring shows that all days in 2023 had global temperatures more than 1°C warmer than the 1850-1900 level for that time of year. Two days were more than 2°C warmer than in 1850-1900, the first time the 2°C level was exceeded," he notes.
In total, about 50% of days in 2023 were 1.5°C warmer than in 1850-1900. In 2016, the record-holding year, 20% of days exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
