A boat is grounded on cracked earth in the Bahía de Cohana area of Lake Titicaca, shared by Bolivia and Peru, in the Bolivian Altiplano on Sept. 22, 2023. AIZAR RALDES / AFP via Getty Images

Scorching heat waves, drought and ocean surface temperatures as warm as a hot tub were all symptoms of global heating in 2023, which the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said would be the warmest year on record.

For the January to November period of this year, the average global temperature was 1.46 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the highest ever recorded.

This year “has now had six record breaking months and two record breaking seasons. The extraordinary global November temperatures, including two days warmer than 2C above preindustrial, mean that 2023 is the warmest year in recorded history,” said Samantha Burgess, C3S deputy director, as C3S reported.

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“Antarctic sea ice extent was the second lowest for November, at 9% below average, after reaching record-low values for the time of year by large margins for six consecutive months.”