USA Today published a story on New Year’s Day providing a preliminary look at the climate statistics of the world in 2023. While it will be a few more days before the final numbers are in, the results showing that 2023 was the warmest year since official records began in 1880. This was a combination of a number of factors, including the warm pool of water in the Eastern Pacific Ocean due to the current El Nino, the record-setting warm sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean, the lack of sea ice in the Arctic and around Antarctica, and many record-setting warm days in the United States, Europe, and many other parts of the world. Depending on how quickly the El Nino dies away, 2024 could be even warmer than 2023. You can read more and see some graphics that illustrate how warm it was here.
