CONFIRMED: 2023 turns out to be hottest year on record as climate changes for worse

The natural El Niño weather pattern combined with human-caused climate change has confirmed 2023 as the hottest year on record.

According to the EU's climate agency, last year was 1.48C warmer than the long-term average before people began burning substantial amounts of fossil fuels.

According to a BBC investigation, there has been a new record high for the season almost every day since July.

Additionally, sea surface temperatures have broken all previous records.

The UK had its second-hottest year on record in 2023, according to a report released by the Met Office last week.

With these worldwide records, the world is getting closer to missing important international climate targets.

"What struck me was not just that [2023] was record-breaking, but the amount by which it broke previous records," notes Andrew Dessler, a professor of atmospheric science at Texas A&M University.

According to Prof Dessler, the margin of some of these records—which are displayed on the chart below—is "really astonishing" given that they are averages for the entire planet.

The Earth is known to be significantly warmer today than it was a century ago because of the unprecedented amounts of greenhouse gases that humans are emitting into the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide.

But because Earth's climate is so complex, no major scientific group actually predicted a year ago that 2023 would be the hottest on record.