NOAA: Almost 100 percent chance 2023 will be hottest year recorded

There is almost a 100 percent chance that 2023 will be the hottest year ever recorded, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced.

According to NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, there is a “greater than 99% chance that 2023 will rank as Earth’s warmest year on record.”

The previous record-breaking year was in 2016, but 2023 was “considerably warmer,” by .20 degrees Fahrenheit.

NOAA reported that last month was the warmest November in the organization’s 174-year record, continuing the above-average warm streak of 2023.

The average global land and ocean surface temperature for November 2023 was 2.59 degrees Fahrenheit above average.

November’s temperatures marked the sixth consecutive record-warm month and the eighth consecutive month in which global ocean-surface temperatures were record high.

It was also the “47th-consecutive November and the 537th-consecutive month with temperatures above the 20th-century average,” NOAA reported.

According to a report Climate Central released in early November, the prior 12 months were the hottest ever recorded, and an estimated 7.8 billion people around the world experienced above-average warmth.

Parts of the southwest United States experienced some of the most extreme heat, with many consecutive days of above-average temperatures. The report found that climate change made the extreme heat at least five times more likely in cities with long warm stretches.

Forecasters are predicting an El Niño climate pattern, meaning periods of above-average ocean surface temperature, heading into the spring. The planet has been experiencing a La Niña cold phase since 2020.