2023 marks the first time on record that every day within a year has exceeded 1 degree C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial level.
Last year was the warmest calendar year in global temperature data records going back to 1850, Copernicus Climate Change Service said on Tuesday.
Global Average Temperature Was Highest In 2023
- The global average temperature in 2023 was 14.98 degrees Celsius, 0.17 degrees Celsius higher than the highest annual value ever recorded in 2016.
- This year was 1.48 degrees Celsius warmer than the pre-industrial level from 1850 to 1900 and 0.60 degrees Celsius warmer than the average from 1991 to 2020.
- Over 12 months beginning in January or February 2024, temperatures will likely rise by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius from their pre-industrial levels.
Temperature Affects Many Things
These record graphs strongly increased the intensity of heatwaves, droughts and extreme rainfall associated with storms like Otis and Daniel, said XAIDA, a consortium of leading European climate institutes.
In July 2023, heatwaves hit the United States, southern Europe and China, with temperatures in the US and China exceeding 50 degree C. Such heatwaves can be deadly.
Can It Cross More Than 50 Degrees C In Europe
Climate exceeding 50°C are also possible in Europe”, said Erich Fischer, Professor at ETH Zurich who studies very extreme heat waves within XAIDA. Fischer and colleagues studied heatwaves over France in thousands of climate model realizations and found that heat waves much warmer than presently observed are possible.
Heat stress associated with such worst-case heat waves presents risks for large public city events.