Not only was 2023 the hottest year ever recorded, many other key indicators of global heating, such as sea level rise, ocean heat, Antarctic sea ice loss and glacier retreat, also smashed records, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s latest State of the Global Climate report.
A set of glaciers around the world that are monitored to indicate what is happening with all glaciers had the largest loss of ice since records began in 1950, according to preliminary data. The most extreme melting was in Europe and This is due to the thermal expansion of the oceans as they heat up, as well as the melting of glaciers and ice sheets. The overall heat content of the oceans hit a new high in 2023, and the rate of warming has been increasing over the past two decades.On average, on any one day in 2023 nearly a third of the global ocean was experiencing a marine heatwave. More than 90 per cent experienced heatwave conditions during the year.