Last year turned out to be the hottest in 77 countries and territories around the planet since at least 1979, with extremely high average temperatures from Bolivia (South America) through Djibouti (Horn of Africa), some island territories in the Caribbean and Pacific States.

That is one of the conclusions of a study led by researchers at the Australian National University and published by the Global Water Monitor Consortium, a collaboration between institutions in Germany, Australia, Austria, the United States and the Netherlands.

The authors used data from thousands of ground stations and satellites orbiting the Earth to provide real-time information on precipitation, air temperature, air humidity, soil and groundwater conditions, vegetation, river flows, flooding, and water volumes. lakes.

The report notes that the highest temperature deviation occurred in Canada, where last year it was 2.2 degrees warmer on average than normal between 1979 and 2022. On the other hand, New Caledonia – an overseas territory belonging to France and located in the South Pacific – was the only territory analyzed that experienced temperatures slightly below average, with 0.06 degrees less.

On the other hand, record heat around the world deeply impacted the global water cycle in 2023, contributing to severe storms, floods, droughts and wildfires.

“Unprecedented heat waves hit around the world in 2023, breaking previous records, from Canada to Brazil and from Spain to Thailand,” said Albert Van Dijk, professor at the Australian National University and president of the Global Water Monitor Consortium.

Van Dijk highlights the influence of “persistent burning of fossil fuels” on natural disasters, water resources, biodiversity and food security. “Lack of precipitation and high temperatures exacerbated multi-year droughts in South America, the Horn of Africa and around the Mediterranean,” he points out.

Van Dijk adds: “The extremely hot and dry conditions caused extensive ecological damage to the world’s largest forests. “Massive wildfires ravaged Canada during the northern summer, while the Amazon rainforest and rivers rapidly descended into severe drought in late 2023.”

Some of the worst disasters of 2023 were linked to unusually strong cyclones that caused extreme rainfall in New Zealand, Mozambique, Malawi, Myanmar, Greece, Libya and Australia.

According to Van Dijk, rising sea and air surface temperatures caused by the burning of fossil fuels have intensified the strength and intensity of rainfall from monsoons, cyclones and other storm systems.

“In 2023, we saw cyclones behave in unexpected and deadly ways. The longest-lived cyclone ever recorded hit southeastern Africa for weeks,” he recalls, before adding: “Warmer sea temperatures fueled those abnormal behaviors, and we can expect to see more such extreme events in the future.”

The last two decades have seen an increase in air temperature and a decrease in air humidity, resulting in more heat stress and increased water needs for people, crops and ecosystems, while droughts have intensified.

Relative air humidity over the global land surface in 2023 was the second driest on record, trailing only that of 2021, continuing a trend toward drier and more extreme conditions.

“The events of 2023 show how ongoing climate change is threatening our planet and more lives with each passing year,” says Van Dijk.

“Globally, we are seeing an increase in the frequency and intensity of rainfall and river flooding. But at the same time, there are also more frequent and faster-developing droughts or ‘flash droughts’,” emphasizes Van Dijk, which can lead to “crop losses and destructive forest fires in a matter of weeks or months.”

The year 2023 began with heavy rains and flooding in the Philippines and the western United States. In February, cyclonic storm systems hit Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique in southeastern Africa, while heavy rains caused flooding and landslides in southeastern Brazil.

In April, Southeast Asia was hit by a large-scale heat wave, followed by Cyclone Mocha in Myanmar. The first half of the year was also characterized by extremely dry conditions in northern Argentina and nearby regions and in southwestern Europe. In May, unprecedented dry conditions in northern Italy ended abruptly with heavy rain and flooding.

An extremely wet season in South Korea, India and Pakistan caused landslides and flooding between June and August, while very dry and hot conditions led to record wildfire activity in Canada.

Starting in July, recurrent very dry and hot conditions throughout South America caused a drought that developed rapidly in the Amazon Basin and intensified during the second half of the year.

In September, a Mediterranean cyclone or ‘medicane’ brought heavy rains to Greece and caused reservoirs to fail in Libya, killing thousands of people. In November, several years of deepening drought in Somalia were interrupted by heavy rains and flooding, while nearby South Sudan continued to suffer greatly from drought.

The final weeks of the year brought strong storm systems with heavy rain and flooding to Australia’s northeast coast.