2023 is set to be the hottest year on record: How fast are European countries heating up?

Scientists confirmed this week that summer 2023 was the hottest season the world has ever seen by a large margin.

“It's hugely pronounced on the graph, and it makes me really nervous for what's to come,” says Dr Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).

The boreal (northern hemisphere) summer June-July-August leapt to an average temperature of 16.77C - 0.66°C above the average for this time of year.

“This is one of the challenges that we face as a climate scientist,” she explains. The new record isn’t out of line with what scientists had predicted for this period - albeit on the “outer edge” of that range.

But, she adds, “What makes me nervous is the dynamics that we can see in the system.”

For starters, the ocean has never been this warm. “If I look at the graph of ocean heat, I'm wondering where it's going to go, because we're not at the time of year where it should be at maximum,” she says.

Secondly, we’re in an El Niño year, which has a warming impact on global temperatures.

“We also know that each El Niño is different and that no other El Niño has ever started with an ocean this warm. So we don't know yet how strong an event it’s going to be, and we're watching very carefully over the next few months.”

2023 is on track to not only break records for the hottest summer, but to be the hottest year the world has ever seen. Currently, it’s 0.01 degrees behind 2016 for the same period, explains Dr Burgess.

“With that heat in the global ocean, 2023 - unless we have a crazy cold winter and autumn - 2023 will be the warmest year we've ever had,” she tells Euronews Green.

But, this ‘hottest summer of our life’ could be remembered as one of the coldest if emissions are not urgently reigned