In its annual global climate report, NOAA found that average land and ocean temperatures reached 2.12 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average last year.
This marked the highest annual average in 173 years of record-keeping. It was also the highest-ever gap between the hottest year and second-hottest — in this case, 2016, which was 0.27 degrees cooler.
The past year was also 2.43 degrees hotter than the average for the pre-industrial period between 1850 and 1900. All of the 10 warmest years since 1850 have been in the past 10 years, according to officials.
The determination echoes those of not only the Copernicus Service but also NASA and the U.K.’s Met Office, all of which confirmed 2023 is the hottest year on record.
NOAA also determined that 2024 has a 1-3 chance of being warmer than 2023 and a 99 percent chance of being among the five warmest years on record.
Meanwhile, Antarctic sea ice also hit a record low for the second year in a row, reaching 690,000 square miles in February, while upper ocean heat content — the heat stored in the ocean’s upper 2,000 meters — was the hottest ever recorded as well.
The five highest upper-ocean heat levels have all occurred in the last five years, according to the agency.
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
