Last year was the globe’s hottest on record by a substantial margin and likely the world's warmest in the last 100,000 years, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said yesterday.
Scientists had widely expected the milestone after climate records were repeatedly broken. Since June, every month has been the world's hottest on record compared with the corresponding month in previous years.
C3S Director Carlo Buontempo said, "This has been a very exceptional year, climate-wise... in a league of its own, even when compared to other very warm years,”
C3S confirmed 2023 as the hottest year in global temperature records going back to 1850. When checked against paleoclimatic data records from sources such as tree rings and air bubbles in glaciers, Buontempo said it was "very likely" the warmest year in the last 100,000 years.