2023 will be the hottest year since industrialization

“In the preliminary assessment of 2023, it was the warmest year in the lowlands of Austria in the series of measurements that have existed since 1768, comparable to 2018. On the mountains it was the third warmest year in the series of mountain surveys. measurements that have existed since 1851,” geosphere climatologist Alexander Orlik summarized the results. “In 2023, the temperature in the lowlands of Austria was 1.3 degrees above the average for the climatic period from 1991 to 2020, and in the mountains it was 1.0 degrees.” Compared to the climate period 1961-1990, which was not yet so badly affected by global warming, the year 2023 was 2.5 degrees above average in the lowlands and 2.2 degrees above average in the mountains.

Heat waves characterized the summer
The regional assessment shows new records for the annual average temperature in many places or exactly the same value as the previous record. 2023 also brought some heat waves, the first of which started in the last third of June and lasted four to five days. A heat wave followed in July and August that, according to the Geosphere (formerly ZAMG), lasted relatively long, 18 and 16 days respectively. The last heat wave came just before mid-September and lasted an average of four days. But the exceptionally high temperatures did not stop there.

16 percent more precipitation
However, precipitation showed extremes with very dry and very wet phases, although there were also some extremely productive weather conditions. Overall, however, 16 percent more precipitation fell in 2023 than in an average year; there was a similarly large deviation in 2002 at plus 13 percent, and this was higher in 1966 at plus 18 percent, as shown by the analysis using HISTALP data.

Three percent fewer hours of sunshine
In contrast, there was an alternation of fairly cloudy and fairly sunny months and a total of three percent fewer sunshine hours than an average year – the last time there were even fewer sunshine hours was in 2014 with a minus of eight percent. April in particular contributed a lot to the negative total annual balance with a deficit of 37 percent, Geosphere reported, and was also the month of April with the least sunshine since 1989.

Warmest year since industrialization
According to UN climate experts, 2023 will likely be the hottest year globally since industrialization. The gap with the previously warmest years 2016 and 2020 was already so large at the end of October that virtually nothing could change in November and December, the World Weather Organization (WMO) reported at the end of November in its preliminary report on the state. of the world climate.