By Crowds of people swimming at Jinshan City Beach in Shanghai, China, on August 13th, 2023, during a heatwave after the government issued an orange alarm to warn people to take precautions against the heat. | Photo by Ying Tang / NurPhoto via Getty Image
2023 was a record-breaking scorcher, final numbers now show. While many of us felt the heat last year, it’s still mind-blowing to see the data. And it’s about to get hotter.
Officially, last year was the hottest in the books since record-keeping began in 1850. Looking farther back, last year’s temperatures “likely exceed those of any period in at least the last 100,000 years,” according to deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service Samantha Burgess.
The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service released data today that confirmed earlier predictions that the heat would be off the charts in 2023. It also made a worrying forecast for the new year, predicting that the world could soon surpass a critical threshold for…