Scientists say 2023 will almost certainly be the hottest year on record

October 2023 was the warmest October on record worldwide, according to data from European climate scientists released on Wednesday. It comes on the heels of the hottest September on record and the hottest summer months worldwide, rounding out a year of record temperatures across the planet.

“We can say with near certainty that 2023 will be the hottest year on record, currently 1.43 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average,” Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said in a statement.

The analysis, which relies heavily on computer models, uses billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world. The difference in global temperatures compared to the long-term average for October 2023 was the second highest of all months in the Copernicus dataset, behind only September 2023. The analysis includes data from January 1940 to the present.

Commenting on the September data, Berkeley Earth researcher Zeke Hausfather writes: “As global temperatures have continued to break records and reach dangerous new highs in recent months, my climate scientist colleagues and I are running out of adjectives to describe . what we saw.”

The United Nations climate conference, known as COP28, is expected to begin in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates at the end of this month.

“The sense of urgency for ambitious climate action before COP28 has never been greater,” said Dr. Burgess.