2023 hottest year on record: Earth shattered global heat records as planet warms

2023 was the hottest year on record, with Earth's surface nearly breaching the critical limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius above late 19th century temperatures, the EU climate monitoring service said Tuesday.

"It is also the first year with all days over one degree warmer than the pre-industrial period," said Samantha Burgess, deputy head of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). "Temperatures during 2023 likely exceed those of any period in at least the last 100,000 years."