In France, 2023 ranked as the second hottest year ever measured

2023 ranked as the second hottest year on record in France since the start of the 20th century, with an average temperature just 0.1°C lower than the 2022 record. ARNAUD FINISTRE/AFP

A worrying near-record: 2023 ranked second among the hottest years ever recorded in France since the start of the 20th century, with an average temperature only 0.1°C lower than the record for 2022, Météo-France announced on Friday.

"In addition to the provisional assessment presented on November 30, the integration of observations from the month of December makes it possible to confirm that (…) the year 2023 will ranks second among the hottest years in our territory,” indicates Météo-France on its website.

The year 2023 is thus 'a continuation of 2022, the hottest year that France has experienced since the beginning of the 20th century", during which an average temperature of 14.5°C was recorded. "With an average temperature of 14.4°C", 2023 is very close behind its predecessor, displaying only 0.1°C less.

"The thermal anomaly over the whole year reaches +1.4°C (compared to 1991-2020 normals)& ;quot;, specifies Météo-France.

"Ubiquitous sweetness"

A first assessment presented at the end of December already showed an exceptional year. This trend was reinforced by data for the month of December, revealed on Friday by Météo-France.

"Across France, December 2023 was significantly warmer than normal", affirms the organization on its website, the temperature average displayed at "+1.9 °C compared to 1991-2020 normals".

"The mildness was almost omnipresent, with very few frosts in the plains. Only the very first days of the month took on a wintry character, indicates Météo France, specifying that certain areas – the Northern Alps and Hauts-de-France – experienced “often disturbed” weather. when others – Languedoc, Roussillon, Corsica – are "contrario" remained "once again on the fringes of the disturbances".

"At the scale of the month and the country, precipitation is consistent with normal", added the French meteorological organization. However, Pas-De-Calais experienced "exceptional rain sequences" – one of which is still in progress -, so much so that the cumulative precipitation since October 15 is more than twice as high as normal over this period.

2023 hottest year in the world

From an international point of view, on the other hand, 2023 constituted "the hottest year ever recorded in the world", underlines Météo-France, relying on on data from the European Copernicus program, to which the organization contributes.

At the beginning of December, even before having the figures for the last month of the year, Copernicus had in fact indicated that 2023 would be "the'year hottest ever recorded in history" after an "extraordinary" and "two record seasons".

The planet experienced record temperatures in many countries in 2023, during a year punctuated by months of drought in Africa, but also forest fires in Europe and America from the North.

Since January, the global average temperature was, according to Copernicus, the hottest ever measured over the first eleven months of the year: 1.46°C above the climate average from the period 1850-1900.

This shows how uncomfortably close the world is to 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures for a single year. This threshold is central to the 2015 Paris climate agreement, even if exceeding this limit will require warming at this level over several decades.