Enlarge / Month by month, 2023 stood far above the rest. (credit: C3S/ECMWF)

The confused wiggles on the graph above have a simple message: Most years, even years with record-high temperatures, have some months that aren’t especially unusual. Month to month, temperatures dip and rise, with the record years mostly being a matter of having fewer, shallower dips.

As the graph shows, last year was not at all like that. The first few months of the year were unusually warm. And then, starting in June, temperatures rose to record heights and simply stayed there. Every month after June set a new record for high temperatures for that month. So it’s not surprising that 2023 will enter the record books as far and away the warmest year on record.

The EU makes it official

Several different organizations maintain global temperature records; while they use slightly different methods, they tend to produce very similar numbers. So, over the next few weeks, you can expect each of these organizations to announce record temperatures (NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will do so on Friday). On Tuesday, it was the European Union’s turn, via its Copernicus Earth-observation program.