People spend the hot summer day on a beach in Sydney, Australia on December 9, 2023. Photo: IC

2023 marked the hottest year globally since the beginning of global meteorological records, breaking the previous 2016 record, China’s National Climate Centre’s latest monitoring on climate changes shows. 

According to the National Climate Centre, the average temperature in 2023 was 0.14 C higher than that in 2016, the second hottest year in history. Besides, the global average temperatures from June to December in 2023 consistently exceeded historical extremes for the same period in history.

The average temperature on the surface of the globe in 2023 was 1.42 C higher than the pre-industrial level (mean value between 1850 and 1900). 

Besides, the annual average temperatures in the northern and southwestern parts of East Asia, Central Asia, the western and southern parts of the Europe, the majority parts of East Africa, the northwestern and the central and southern parts of America, and the northwest of the North Pacific, as well as the southern part of Indian Ocean and the central and eastern North Atlantic, all surpassed their historical high-temperature records. 

The National Climate Centre has forecast that the ongoing moderate-intensity El Niño event is expected to last till the spring of 2024. The El Niño event is expected to have a significant impact on the global surface temperatures, and it is possible that the consecutive monthly high-temperature record will be broken again. 

In 2023, China recorded its highest average temperature in the history of its meteorological observations, 0.81 C higher than the average level between 1991 and 2020. 

In 2023, the average temperatures in most parts of China ranked among the top 10 in history, with record-breaking annual average temperatures recorded in areas such as the eastern part of North China, the southern part of Northeast China, the northern part of Northwest China, most parts of Southwest China, and the southeastern part of Southwest China’s Xizang Autonomous Region.

Global Times