Last Summer Was the Hottest in 2,000 Years — and 2024 Could Top It
Summer 2023 was not only the warmest in modern records, it had no equal for the past two millennia, researchers say.
A person pours water over the head of a friend to cool down in La Bisbal d'Empord, Girona, Spain, July 19, 2023.
Photographer: Angel Garcia/BloombergThe summer of 2023 was hotter than any other in the Northern Hemisphere for the past two millennia, according to a study published Tuesday in Nature. And as scorching as 2023 was, the coming summer could be even hotter — largely because of manmade climate change heating the planet, compounded by an El Niño weather cycle.
Scientists previously determined that 2023 was the hottest year since 1850, when global modern temperature records began. The researchers managed to establish a 2,000-year record by combining instrumental measurements with climate reconstructions. They found the extreme warmth of last summer not only smashed modern records but also exceeded the warmest summer prior to the instrumental record — in the year 246 — by more than half a degree Celsius, with almost all natural climate variations taken into account. And it was almost 4C warmer than the coldest summer (in 536).