The warmest January on record indicates a sweltering 2024 to come.

The EU's climate change service says that for the first time, yearly average global temperatures have been more than 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter than in the pre-industrial era, for an entire year. Limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees (averaged over a decade) is a key aim of the 2015 Paris Agreement. Breaching that mark even temporarily shows how difficult it's becoming to achieve that goal. Independent studies have shown even higher recorded temperature increase averages (1.54°C) than the EU model (1.52°C). The NOAA estimate was 1.48°C.

The picture in Europe was mixed. While the Nordic countries were significantly cooler than the average for the reference period, it was significantly warmer in the south of the continent.
It was also warmer than average in eastern Canada, in Northwest Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, while it was warmer than average in western Canada, the center of the USA and most of Siberia were colder than average. was colder than average.

2023 was officially the hottest year in recorded history, and may well be the coolest year in our future. The hottest 10 years in recorded history were the last 10 years, with last year at the top.