According to the EU’s climate change agency, Copernicus, today’s year will be the warmest globally since records began in the mid-19th century. It is practically impossible that December will change anything, the organization announced on Wednesday. The hottest year to date was 2016.
It was previously suggested that 2023 would set a record for global average temperatures. In mid-November, the US climate agency NOAA said there was a more than 99 percent chance that the year would be the warmest since 1850. However, none of the relevant institutions have yet taken a full decision.
Several months with record temperatures
Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), pointed out in a statement that the year 2023 had set temperature records for several months – including November. “Exceptional global temperatures in November, including two days when temperatures reached two degrees above pre-industrial temperatures, mean 2023 will be the hottest year on record.”
When asked, a Copernicus spokesperson explained that global average December temperatures should be extremely cold so that 2023 would not be the warmest year. However, such low temperatures can be ruled out because the natural climate phenomenon El Niño persists, which has a warming effect. “That is why we can now say with great certainty that 2023 will be the hottest year on record,” the spokesperson said.
So far 0.13 degrees warmer than the record year 2016
Through November, global average temperatures were 1.46 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial reference period of 1850 to 1900, as Copernicus also announced. So far, 2023 has been 0.13 degrees warmer than the first eleven months of the previous record holder, 2016.
“As long as greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise, we cannot expect any results other than this year’s,” said C3S director Carlo Buontempo. “Temperatures will continue to rise and with them the consequences of heat waves and droughts.”
Source: Krone
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