Following a summer and autumn of planetary extremes—the hottest September by a wide margin, supercharged hurricanes, self-perpetuating heat domes—scientists have now declared 2023 the warmest year on record.
Today the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released its 2023 report, finding that last year was 1.35 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial average. Berkeley Earth, a nonprofit climate research group, released its own 2023 report showing that global average temperatures last year were 1.54 degrees C above preindustrial levels. That smashes the previous record year of 2016, which was 1.37 degrees warmer. Earlier this week the European Union’s Copernicus program Wired - Science