'Frankly astonished': 2023 was significantly hotter than any other year on record

A woman carries her pet dogs as residents are evacuated on rubber boats through floodwaters in northern China's Hebei province in August 2023 amid severe flooding from Typhoon Doksuri. 2023 was the hottest year ever recorded, scientists say. (Andy Wong/AP)

Last year was the hottest on record – and it wasn't close, new data shows. Global warming, driven primarily by burning fossil fuels, pushed temperatures so high in 2023 that scientists were astounded.

"We're frankly astonished," by how warm 2023 was, says Gavin Schmidt, the director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.