2023 is "virtually certain" to be the warmest year ever recorded, climate agency says

As 2023 creeps closer to its end, new climate data shows that the global average temperature is already the highest ever recorded – and that the year is "virtually certain" to be the hottest in observational history. 

The data, compiled by the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, shows that from January to October, average temperatures across Earth were 1.43 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average, a level dangerously close to the 1.5 degree Celsius warming threshold climate scientists have long warned would bring significant challenges for people worldwide. The average experienced so far this year is also .10 degrees Celsius higher than the 10-month average for 2016, scientists said, which is the current record-holder for the warmest year. 

"We can say with near certainty that 2023 will be the warmest year on record," Samantha Burgess, deputy director of Copernicus, said. "...The sense of urgency for ambitious climate action going into COP28 has never been higher."