2023 likely to be the hottest year on record

According to the the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), temperature records have been broken in many countries and 2023 is likely to become the hottest year on record.

The UK, Vietnam, Poland, Spain, China, Latvia, Myanmar, Portugal, Belarus, the Netherlands, Thailand … these are just some of the countries where temperature records have been broken this year.

According to the report, this was the warmest October on record globally, noting an average surface temperature of 15.3 degrees Celsius (59.54 degrees Fahrenheit) over the period.

That was 0.85 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average for October and 1.7 degrees Celsius warmer than the preindustrial period of 1850-1900.

The data, which is collated from the measurement of satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world, show the global mean temperature year-to-date is the highest on record. It leaves 2023 firmly on track to surpass the temperature average for 2016 — currently the warmest year ever recorded.

Rising carbon emissions and climate change are key factors behind this prediction, and the anticipated return of the El Niño weather phenomenon is also playing a part.