Temperature Anomaly: Yearly (NASA) - 1884 - 2023

Earth's average surface temperature in 2023 was the warmest on record, according to an analysis by NASA. Global temperatures in 2023 were around 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius) above the average for NASA's baseline period (1951-1980), scientists from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York reported.

In 2023, hundreds of millions of people around the world experienced extreme heat, and each month from June through December set a global record for the respective month. July was the hottest month ever recorded. Overall, Earth was about 2.45 degrees Fahrenheit (or about 1.36 degrees Celsius) warmer in 2023 than the late 19th-century average, when modern record-keeping began.

Though scientists have conclusive evidence that the planet’s long-term warming trend is driven by human activity, they still examine other events that can affect yearly or multi-year changes in climate such as El Nino, aerosols and pollution, and volcanic eruptions.

NASA's full dataset of global surface temperatures as well as full details with code of how NASA scientists conducted the analysis, are publicly available from GISS. Additional versions of this visualization are available on NASA Scientific Visualization Studio.

Shades of red and orange indicate areas where the average monthly temperatures are warmer than they were in that area during the base period from 1951-1980. Shades of blue show cooling compared to the base period. For example, if New England is red in a March of a given year, then it is warmer than the average March in New England from 1951-1980. If part of Canada is blue in August, then it is cooler than the average for August during the base period. Black areas are where no data are available.