In the history books: 2023 by the records

As we say goodbye to the year 2023, it is one that will stay long in the memory for many reasons. One of which being the amount of weather records broken.

With climate change continuing to take effect, the year saw multiple record temperatures.

This included the warmest June, July, August, September, and October months in recorded history. These five cumulative records helped propel the year as a whole to become the hottest ever recorded, with temperatures 1.44°C warmer than the 1901-2000 mean.

It wasn't just temperatures setting records, either, March 2023 enters the books as the wettest March for over 40 years. This followed the dried February for 30 years.

In fact, an average of 119.2 mm of rainfall fell across England in March, marking an amount 90% higher than average.

The abundance of rainfall helped replenish water sources, which were suffering from drought in the aftermath of the dry February. It wasn't just records on-shore being broken though.

In April, we marked a moment at which the world's oceans reached all-time high temperatures. Simultaneous marine heatwaves around the world propelled ocean surface temperatures to an average of 21.1°C between the start of April to around April 14.

This slightly beat the previous record of 21°C set in 2016.

There was some good news, in May it was confirmed that for the first time ever, wind turbines contributed more to the UK energy grid than fossil fuels. With up to a third of all power used across the UK up to March sourced from wind farms.