– By Rupa Kumari
2023 is the hottest year on record, with global temperatures close to the 1.5°C limit. Not only this, but temperatures during 2023 likely exceed those of any period in at least the last 100,000 years.
On Tuesday, Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said, “2023 was an exceptional year with climate records tumbling like dominoes. Not only is 2023 the warmest year on record, it is also the first year with all days over 1°C warmer than the pre-industrial period. Temperatures during 2023 likely exceed those of any period in at least the last 100,000 years.”
C3S also informed that it is likely that a 12-month period ending in January or February 2024 will exceed 1.5°C above the pre-industrial level. It also confirmed the year 2023 as the warmest calendar year in global temperature data records going back to 1850.
2023 breaks several records
The year 2023 broke several climate records. In June, the temperature anomalies relative to 1850-1900 pre-industrial level reached 1.5°C for several days in a row. For the rest of 2023, global daily temperature anomalies above 1.5°C became a regular occurrence, to the point where close to 50% of days in 2023 were in excess of 1.5°C above the 1850-1900 level.
July and August 2023 were the warmest two months on record. Boreal summer (June-August) was also the warmest season on record. Further, each month from June to December in 2023 was warmer than the corresponding month in any previous year. December 2023 was the warmest December on record globally, with an average temperature of 13.51°C, 0.85°C above the 1991-2020 average and 1.78°C above the 1850-1900 level for the month.
2023 was the second-warmest year for Europe, at 1.02°C above the 1991-2020 average, 0.17°C cooler than 2020, the warmest year on record. Temperatures in Europe were above average for 11 months during 2023 and September was the warmest September on record, according to C3S.
Further, the European winter (December 2022 – February 2023) was the second-warmest winter on record. Meanwhile, the average temperature for the European summer (June-August) was 19.63°C; at 0.83°C above average, it was the fifth-warmest on record. European autumn (September-November) had an average temperature of 10.96°C, which is 1.43°C above average. This made autumn the second-warmest on record, just 0.03°C cooler than autumn 2020
On the other hand, as per C3S, the atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane continued to increase and reached record levels in 2023, reaching 419 ppm and 1902 ppb respectively. Carbon dioxide concentrations in 2023 were 2.4 ppm higher than in 2022 and methane concentrations increased by 11 ppb.
Further, the year also recorded a large number of extreme events across the globe, including heatwaves, floods, droughts and wildfires. Estimated global wildfire carbon emissions in 2023 increased by 30% with respect to 2022 driven largely by persistent wildfires in Canada.
Impact on oceans
In 2023, marine heatwaves were a common occurrence that affected regions such as the Mediterranean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean and the North Pacific, and much of the North Atlantic. C3S explained that on longer timescales, several factors may have also influenced or reinforced the warm anomalies including heat content coming from deeper ocean levels.
The temperature in the ocean also remained fairly high in 2023. Global average sea surface temperatures (SSTs) remained persistently and unusually high, reaching record levels for the time of year from April through December In addition to El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the main long-term factor for high ocean temperatures is the continuing increase in concentrations of greenhouse gases. ENSO is a pattern of natural climate variability that sees ocean temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific switch between cooler (La Niña) and warmer (El Niño) than average conditions. These ENSO events influence temperature and weather patterns around the world.
According to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), El Niño began in July, and conditions continued to strengthen through the rest of the year.