San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Global temperatures hit an all-time record
2023 Year in Review
Hottest Year Yet
Early calculations by the U.N. weather agency and Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service indicate that 2023 has been the warmest year on record globally.
Two days in November were 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) warmer globally than in preindustrial times.
On average, Earth in 2023 was approximately 1.46 degrees Celsius (2.63 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than in preindustrial times.
In Hot Water
A new study finds that the ocean surface is now warmer than at any other time since satellite records began, with the new heat energy threatening to supercharge storms worldwide.
Earlier studies revealed that the oceans are now heating more quickly than in the past 2,000 years.
Record Emissions
A new report says this year’s carbon dioxide emissions are likely to reach an all-time high despite climate experts and the U.N. calling for them to be slashed to curb global heating.
Darkest Winter
People living across the eastern Great Lakes and Ontario endured their darkest winter in 73 years.
Toronto saw weeks in December 2022 and January 2023 with scant sunshine.
Higher Calling
Puerto Rico’s famed coquí frogs are now croaking at a higher pitch, which scientists say is due to global heating.
Comparisons of recordings made of the frog’s distinctive two-note call, “coquí,” over the past 23 years reveal the change in pitch, says researcher Peter Narins of the University of California, Los Angeles.
They write that the calls grew higher in pitch at every location studied.
Current Slowdown
The deep ocean currents that carry vital heat, oxygen and nutrients throughout the world are slowing down around Antarctica in a trend scientists warn could h 1` avae mmasassivs e ivefefeffce t co t n oc n licmliamtea.te.
Scientists say the trend is caused by rapidly melting Antarctic ice.
Orca See Orca Do
Yacht owners around the Iberian Peninsula reported that orcas attacked their ships in a behavior marine mammal experts suggest is being copied by others of the species.
Several of the craft were sent to the bottom of the sea by the assaults.
Earthquakes
A pair of the most severe earthquakes to strike Turkey since
1939 killed more than 59,000 people and inflicted catastrophic damage to the south of the country and adjacent parts of Syria on Feb. 6.
• Eighteen people perished in southern Ecuador and neighboring parts of Peru on March 18 during an intense quake.
• One of the strongest quakes to strike France in modern times damaged dozens of homes on June 17.
• A catastrophic temblor in Morocco’s Marrakesh-Safi region on Sept. 8 killed 2,960 people and leveled entire villages near the epicenter.
• Four magnitude 6.3 earthquakes in western Afghanistan’s Herat province from Oct. 7 to Oct. 15 killed almost 1,500 people, mainly during the initial shaking.
• At least 153 people perished when a magnitude 5.7 temblor hit western Nepal and northern India on Nov. 3.
Java Blast
A sudden eruption of Java’s Merapi volcano on Dec. 3 killed 23 climbers, who were caught by surprise on the slopes of Indonesia’s most active volcano. Nearby villages were blanketed with ash.
Tropical Cyclones
Cyclone Freddy left 1,434 dead across Madagascar, Mozambique and Malawi during the first two weeks of March after crossing the entire width of the Indian Ocean. With a life span of five weeks and four days, it was the longest-lived storm on record.
• At least 17 people were killed when Cyclone Biparjoy tore roofs off houses, uprooted trees and brought flash floods to the western India-southern Pakistan border region on June 16.
• Super Typhoon Doksuri brought eastern China the heaviest rainfall on record, killing 46 people in late July as the most costly such storm in Chinese history.
• From western Cuba to Florida and the Carolinas, Hurricane Idalia caused extensive damage, massive flooding and storm-surge inundations, especially across northern Florida from late August to early September.
• Hurricane Otis quickly reached Category-5 force overnight before laying waste to Acapulco with little warning on Oct. 25.