2023 was the hottest year on record in Brazil, according to Inmet (National Meteorological Institute). According to the country's official weather forecasting authority, the average temperature last year reached 24.92 degrees Celsius, exceeding 2015 and 2019.
The average temperature in Brazil is 24.23 degrees Celsius, according to the institute's historical series, which began in 1961. Also last year, the country's all-time high, at 44.8 degrees Celsius, was recorded in Aracuí in Minas Gerais state. This number was reached in November, on the last day of the eighth heat wave that will hit Brazil in 2023.
Last year saw heavy rains, such as in São Sebastião, on São Paulo's northern coast, historic droughts in the Amazon and successive heat waves, which could set the tone for summer in part of the country this year.
But the situation is not limited to Brazil. The European Space Agency's Copernicus Observatory said on Tuesday (9) that 2023 was the hottest year since the beginning of the historical series, in 1850.
With exceptionally high temperatures in several parts of the planet, including the oceans, last year recorded a global average of 14.98 degrees Celsius, exceeding the previous record holder, 2016, by 0.17 degrees Celsius.
Last year was also the first year in which each day exceeded pre-industrial levels (1850-1900) by 1°C. In November, for the first time in history, there were two days when values were 2°C higher.
With months of temperatures well above average, even before December, researchers were already signaling that 2023 would be the hottest in the past 125,000 years.
With temperatures recorded about 1 degree Celsius higher in the first three weeks of that month than the historical average for that period, the forecast gained greater strength.
Moreover, an analysis published by the World Meteorological Organization at the end of November indicated that the current year should average temperatures 1.4 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels – adding to the “deafening cacophony” of weather records. Broken.
2024 could be one of the hottest years in history
The combination of warmer oceans and planet with the effects of El Niño could create heat waves and potentially record temperatures this summer. From this perspective, the climate of the first of 2024 in Brazil will be followed by an increasing subjection to the effects of climate change.
Although meteorological analyzes are only limited to the first half of the year, the chance of a cooling El Niño phenomenon, characterized by above-average warming of tropical Pacific waters, could help provide a respite.
