Features of the Surface Temperature Regime over the Globe in 2023

The state of the surface temperature regime of the Globe in 2023 and its variability during 1850–2023 are considered. Based on instrumental observations, the main temperature anomalies of 2023 and current trends in their change are analyzed. It is shown that 2023 was the warmest year on record (since 1850) for all data categories (land, sea, and land + sea) and all three global areas (the Globe, Northern and Southern hemispheres). Overall, globally, the surface temperature anomaly was +0.533°C (on land +0.738°C). The previous maximum global temperature of +0.345°C was set in 2016. More than 87% of all observations (89% on land) were, on average for the year, above the 1991–2020 climate norm. Among them, about 50% of all data were above the 95th percentile (5% extremes of heat), including 15% that were record-breaking for their locations. Negative anomalies accounted for only 8% of all data (another 5% were practically zero). All seasons, as well as months, in the oceans and on the continents of both hemispheres, were also extremely warm: most of them were among the 5% extremes of heat or global temperature records, seasonal and/or monthly. The linear trend local estimates for 1976–2023 confidently confirm the warming trend—97% of all trend coefficients are positive. The highest warming intensity, on average for the region, is observed in the Arctic belt (+0.563°C/10 years) and in Europe (+0.498°C/10 years). During the period of modern global warming (1976–2023), the average annual global temperature increased (along the trend line) by 0.925°C. During this time, using fixed percentile values with a base period of 1911–2022, the area under cold extremes (values less than the 5th percentile) decreased from 15–20% to almost zero, and under heat extremes (values greater than the 95th percentile), on the contrary, it increased from 0 to 20–30%. In 2023 and 2016 (the warmest years), 5%-extremes of heat’s area jumped to 45–50% of the Globe. In general, over the Globe and per year, the modern surface warming of 1976–2023 on land is twice as active as on the surface of the oceans, in the Northern Hemisphere it is twice as intense as in the Southern Hemisphere, and in the Northern Hemisphere it has accelerated more than twice as much as in the last century (on the continents and oceans). However, in the Southern Hemisphere over land, the acceleration coefficient is significantly lower (only 1.6), and on the surface of the oceans there has been practically no acceleration of warming. The updated global estimates of the surface temperature regime presented in the article, obtained from the T3288 array (data from the Federal State Budgetary Institution Institute of Global Climate and Ecology (IGCE)), are in good agreement with the estimates from the CRUTEM5 array (data from Hadley/CRU, one of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) basic datasets).