2023 hottest year in entire history of observations

The average annual temperature has exceeded the pre-industrial level by almost 1.5 degrees, bringing humanity to the first of the two milestones mentioned in the Paris Agreement, beyond which scientists predict the catastrophic consequences of climate change for life on Earth. Thus, 2023 is confirmed as the warmest calendar year in global temperature data records going back to 1850.

“The two main causes of the anomalous year 2023 are human-caused global warming and El Nino – a climatic phenomenon when the surface temperature of the equatorial Pacific Ocean increases – sometimes by more than 1 degree,” Vladimir Loginov, a scientist in the field of climatology and geoecology, academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, explained.

He also noted three characteristic features of the climate. Firstly, over the past three decades, the highest rate of warming has been observed precisely in the warm season, although it was previously observed in winter. Secondly, there are more long-lasting heat waves with high intensity. Earlier they were observed once every five years, while now they are recorded every year and even more often. Thirdly, there have been more droughts: twice as many as in the last thirty years.