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By Rachel Ramirez, CNN
3 minute read
Updated 9:29 AM EST, Wed December 6, 2023
A person hides under a face cover in Manhattan's Central Park during a heat wave in New York on Friday, July 28.
A construction worker drinks cold water during a heat wave where temperatures have reached over 110 degrees Fahrenheit for 27 consecutive days in Scottsdale, Arizona, on July 28.
People keep cool in a fountain at New York's Battery Park on Thursday, July 27.
Yemichael Abebe uses an umbrella to take shelter from the sun while waiting for a bus in Takoma Park, Maryland, on July 27.
City workers take a break in the shade of a nearby storefront as they lay down new pavement in Woodland Hills, California, on July 27.
A woman shades herself from the sun along the Brooklyn Bridge in New York on July 27.
Vendors sell cold drinks near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, on July 27.
Snickers, a great horned owl, is sprayed down with water by a volunteer at Liberty Wildlife, an animal rehabilitation center and hospital in Phoenix, on Wednesday, July 26.
Representatives of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust distribute shelter information and bottles of water to people in Miami on July 25.
Rick White drinks water while cooling down in his tent in "The Zone," Phoenix's largest homeless encampment, on Tuesday, July 25.
A cactus in Phoenix is affected by the extreme heat and drought. Record-high temperatures in Arizona, combined with a lack of seasonal monsoons, have caused saguaro cactuses at the Desert Botanical Garden to become "highly stressed," according to Chief Science Officer Kimberlie McCue.
Israel Sanchez, left, and Alfonso Garcia carry a person onto a stretcher in Eagle Pass, Texas, on July 18. The person, who was suffering from dehydration, fell sick after he and his mother were found with a group of migrants who recently crossed the Rio Grande into the United States.
Roberto Guerrero, left, and his son Jose work in the early morning to install a new air conditioner at a home in Phoenix on July 18. Guerrero is part of perhaps the most essential workforce in town: AC repair techs. "If they need us, we go," he said of the long work hours.
A person covers their head while trying to stay cool in "The Zone," a vast homeless encampment where hundreds of people reside in Phoenix, on July 18.
Workers harvest onions overnight in Salem, New Mexico, to avoid working in the heat of the day on July 18.
A man in Las Vegas puts his head in misters to cool off on July 17.
A heat advisory sign is shown along Highway 190 at Death Valley National Park in Death Valley, California, on July 16.
People sit in a crowded room at Phoenix's Justa Center, one of the area's many cooling centers, on July 16.
A sign warning of extreme heat invites people to "Chill with Jesus" inside a church in Tucson, Arizona, on July 15.
A firefighter watches flames from the Rabbit Fire approach Gilman Springs Road in Moreno Valley, California, on July 14.
A person seeking shelter from the heat watches the weather forecast at the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Phoenix on July 14.
Capt. Darren Noak, a medic with Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services, applies a chemical ice pack to a man in Austin, Texas, on July 12.
A person fishes in Isle of Palms, South Carolina, on July 12.
A sleeping child is protected from the sun in Los Angeles on July 12.
A sign displays the temperature on July 12 as jets taxi at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport.
Kristin Peterson cools off with a cold bandana at the Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center in Austin on July 11.
The "World's Tallest Thermometer" shows temperatures reaching triple digits in Baker, California, on July 11.
Steven Rodriguez picks okra in Coachella, California, on July 11.
In pictures: Heat wave spans across US coasts
CNN —
Earth’s temperature was off the charts this year, and scientists just confirmed what much of planet already felt coming: 2023 will officially be the hottest year on record.
The analysis from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service found this year’s global temperature will be more than 1.4 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels — close to the 1.5-degree threshold in the Paris climate agreement, and beyond which scientists say humans and ecosystems will struggle to adapt.
Every month since June has been the hottest such month on record, and November piled on. The month was roughly 1.75 degrees warmer than pre-industrial levels, and two days soared beyond 2 degrees, worrying scientists about what this means for the planet in the coming years.
The report comes as delegates from more than 150 countries are in Dubai for COP28, the UN’s annual climate summit, where the discussion over whether to phase out planet-warming fossil fuels has been heated.
“The timing could not be more urgent,” Brenda Ekwurzel, director of climate science at the Union of Concerned Scientists, who is not involved with the report, told CNN.
“Wealthy and high-emitting countries, which have contributed the most to this record-breaking year,” she added, “have a greater responsibility to make a fair, fast and funded phase out of fossil fuels to help limit the increasing extreme weather and climate change impacts.”
Scientists have said 2023’s exceptional warmth is the result of the combined effects of El Niño and human-causedclimatechange. A series ofdeadly heat waves and remarkablerecord-breaking temperatures have hit several continents this year, whileunprecedented ocean heatblanketed much of the globe.
Fall in the Northern Hemisphere this year was the warmest on record around the world “by a large margin,” according to Copernicus. November was also wetter than average across most of Europe, with Storm Ciarán bringing heavy rain and floods to many regions including Italy.
As temperatures crank higher into the next year, the world appears to be ontrack to breach 1.5 degrees of warmingon a longer-term basis in the coming years. While it’s worrisome global warming is exceeding that temperature for months at a time, scientists are particularly concerned the planet will stay above 1.5 degrees for the long term.
Through 2022, Earth hadwarmed around 1.2 degrees — and the past few years have made it abundantly clear that the world are already feeling alarming effects of the climate crisis that many are not prepared for.
This photograph taken on November 3, shows waves crashing on the "Rocher de La Vierge" (Virgin Rock) as Storm Ciarán hits the region, in Biarritz, southwestern France.
A separate report released Tuesday from the World Meteorological Organization found the decade between 2011 and 2020 was the hottest on record for the planet’s land and oceans as the rate ofclimatechange “surged alarmingly” and “turbo charged” dramatic glacier loss and sea-level rise during this period.
“As long as greenhouse gas concentrations keep rising, we can’t expect different outcomes from those seen this year,” Copernicus Director Carlo Buontempo said. “The temperature will keep rising and so will the impacts of heatwaves and droughts.”
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