2023 was warmest year on record, NOAA confirms

(NewsNation) — Confirming predictions they made earlier in the year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday that 2023 was the world’s warmest year on record. 

Scientists say that there’s a one-in-three chance that 2024 could be even warmer. 

In 2023, Earth’s average land and ocean surface temperature was 2.12 degrees Fahrenheit above the average temperature in the 20th century. That’s the highest it’s been since NOAA started tracking in 1850. The average global temperatures for the year exceeded the pre-industrial average by 2.43 degrees, according to NOAA. 

It was a record-breaking year for the contiguous United States as well. At an average annual temperature of 54.4 degrees Fahrenheit, 2023 marked the country’s fifth-warmest year in 129 years. 

“After seeing the 2023 climate analysis, I have to pause and say that the findings are astounding,” NOAA Chief Scientist Dr. Sarah Kapnick said in a statement. “Not only was 2023 the warmest year in NOAA’s 174-year climate record — it was the warmest by far. A warming planet means we need to be prepared for the impacts of climate change that are happening here and now, like extreme weather events that become both more frequent and severe.”

Also setting a new heat record was the ocean. In 2023, the upper ocean heat content (which NOAA says addresses the amount of heat stored in the upper 2,000 meters of the ocean) was the highest on record. Meanwhile, the amount of polar sea ice was the lowest, with Antarctic sea ice coverage averaging 3.79 million square miles. 

NASA, as well as other scientific organizations, confirmed NOAA’s findings on 2023 being the warmest year, noting that July was the hottest month. Since the late 19th century, NASA wrote, the planet’s average surface temperature has risen about 2 degrees because of increased carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere and other human activities. 

Bill Nelson, NASA’s administrator, called what’s happening a “climate crisis.” 

“From extreme heat, to wildfires, to rising sea levels, we can see our Earth is changing,” Nelson said.

There was an “unprecedented” number of billion-dollar disasters — 28 — that struck the United States in 2023, NOAA wrote in a report last week. 

Extreme weather events will keep happening, until greenhouse gas emissions go to “zero,” Kapnick said. 

“Government policy can address both emissions, but also actions to reduce climate impacts by building resilience,” Kapnick said.