'Frankly astonished': 2023 was significantly hotter than any other year on record
2023 was significantly hotter than any year going back to at least the late 1800s. The coming decades will be even hotter if humans don't rapidly move away from burning fossil fuels, scientists warn.
Last year was the hottest on record – and it wasn't close, new data shows. Global warming, driven primarily by burning fossil fuels, pushed temperatures so high in 2023 that scientists were astounded.
"We're frankly astonished," by how warm 2023 was, says Gavin Schmidt, the director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
The global average temperature in, according to by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA. European Union measurements released earlier this week came to a .
