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2023 - The Warmest Year on Record

It’s official: 2023 was the warmest year ever on record. The National Centers for Environmental Information recently released a report assessing the global climate in 2023 and predictions for 2024. Here are some highlights:

• 2023 was the warmest year on record, dating back to 1850

• There is a 1-in-3 chance that 2024 will be even warmer than 2023, and a 99% chance that 2024 will rank among the 5 warmest years on record

• Upper ocean heat content - the amount of heat stored in the top 2000 meters of the ocean- was record high in 2023

• Average annual arctic sea ice extent was among the 10 lowest since 1979, and Antarctic sea ice extent was the lowest on record

• There were 78 named tropical storms across the globe in 2023, which was below average; There were 20 in the North Atlantic, which was well above average

National Centers for Environmental Information

Snowpack Influences in the West

Despite recent snowstorms across the country, out of around 800 weather monitoring stations that track snow in the western United States, 90% of them reported snow measurements less than the median for this time of year.

In western states, the size of the snowpack influences how much water farmers can use, how challenging the wildfire season will be and how much power hydropower dams can generate. Climate scientists expect snowpack to decrease as the climate warms, further threatening a supply that’s already strained in most parts of the West.

Evan Bush, NBC News

British Columbia Sees Record Losses From Climate Change-Induced Extreme Weather

Wildfires in the Okanagan and Shuswap last summer caused $720 million in insured losses, the most costly event recorded in B.C. It tops the $675 million in insured damages from the 2021 catastrophic floods in B.C.

The losses from such events, reported annually by the Insurance Bureau of Canada, have been increasing for decades across the country.

It is more important now than ever for the B.C government to increase funding to help local municipalities build climate resilience, including wildfire fighting costs, installing fire breaks around communities, repairing infrastructure such as roads and bridges, and upgrading dikes.

Gordon Hoekstra, Vancouver Sun

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