The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) confirmed this Friday that 2023 was the hottest year in history since global records began in 1880, with six months breaking record figures.
According to a NASA analysis, global temperatures last year were about 2.1 degrees Fahrenheit (1.2 degrees Celsius) above the average for the agency’s reference period (1951-1980), scientists at the Institute reported. Goddard Space Studies (GISS).
This record in temperatures coincides with a year of “extreme weather conditions across the planet” that, in the United States alone, caused 25 catastrophes that caused damage worth more than $1 billion each.
At the presentation conference of the study on global temperatures in 2023 – which the space agency carried out together with the National Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) -, NOAA chief scientist Sarah Kapnick, assured that “the results are exceptional.”
The “exceptional heat” hit much of the world, causing “scorching” waves in South America, Japan, Europe and the United States and in the southwestern United States, Phoenix (Arizona) had 31 consecutive days of temperatures above 110 degrees Fahrenheit (approximately 43.33 degrees Celsius).
World records from June to December
From June to December, world temperature records were set each month. July was the hottest month ever recorded.
At the conference on the report, the head of Climate Monitoring and Assessment at NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Russell Vose, explained that 2023 temperatures, on average, are about 0.15 degrees Celsius warmer than in 2016.
The report indicates that the increase in heat is “on the rise” and, in this sense, Vose regretted that “the current concentrations of carbon dioxide are very high”, a fact that does not help to contain said growth.
Among other natural tragedies that occurred in 2023, NASA highlights the massive forest fires in Canada and Hawaii and the intense rains in Italy, Greece, the United States and Central Europe.
According to the publication, Tropical Cyclone Freddy also broke records, becoming the longest cyclone in history, devastating areas of Madagascar and Mozambique with deadly flooding and landslides.
Precisely today, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) also confirmed that 2023 was the hottest year on record, also shattering the marks reached in 2016 and 2020.
By Usmana Kousar
