January 2023 was the seventh warmest January in the world in 174 years (first reliable global averages from NOAA). January's global surface temperature was 0.87 degrees above the 20th century average of 12.0 degrees.
Warmer-than-average conditions were observed over most of Europe and the Arctic, much of Africa and northern and easternNorth America, and parts of southernSouth America and northwestern, central and southeastern Asia. Sea surface temperatures were above average over much of the northern, western and southwestern Pacific and the Atlantic.
Fig. 1; Source: NOAA
Temperatures were near or below average over much of Oceania, Antarctica, and Greenland, as well as northeast and southwest Asia, southwest North America, and a north-central band of South America.
Fig. 2; Source: NOAA
Sea surface temperatures were below average over much of the south-central, central, and eastern tropical Pacific and much of the central and southeastern Indian Ocean.
January 2023 in the Northern Hemisphere was the fifth warmest on record at 1.28 degrees above average. Northern Hemisphere ocean temperatures ranked as the third warmest (tied with 2022) for January tied with 2022) for January, while land-only temperatures ranked sixth warmest.
Following a similar trend, ocean temperatures in the Southern Hemisphere ranked as the eighth warmest on record, while land temperatures alone ranked as the sixth warmest.temperatures on record, while land temperatures in the Southern Hemisphere alone were 0.03 degrees cooler than average. The Southern Hemisphere surface temperature (land and ocean) for January 2023 was the 22nd warmeston record (tied with 1977 and 2011).
European balance sheet
This January, Europe experienced an exceptionally mild month that set the record for the warmest January on record. The temperature on the old continent was 0.16 degrees above the previous January record set in 2007.
- January in Austria was 4.0 degrees above average in the lowlands and 1.6 degrees above average in the mountainous areas.
- In the Netherlands, January 2023 was 1.2 degrees above average as measured by the De Bilt Observatory.
- Belgium recorded a temperature 1.5 degrees above the long-term average this month.
- Latvia, in addition to having its 3rd wettest January this month, recorded an average temperature of 2.4 degrees above average.
- January in Estonia followed a similar wet and warm pattern this month to its southern neighbor. Precipitation was 37% above average, while temperatures were 2.0 degrees above the monthly average.
- Across the Baltic Sea, Denmark followed a similar pattern. The average January temperature in Denmark was the ninth warmest on record at 2.2 degrees above climate normal. It was also the wettest January on record since records began in 1874.
- January 2023 in Norway was 1.2 degrees above average.
- Italy had the 11th warmest January on record with 0.96 degrees above average.
- Average temperatures across the UK for January were slightly above average at 0.4 degrees above the 1991-2020 average for the month.
- In Ireland, average temperatures across the country were above their monthly averages, ranging from 0.1 degrees warmer than average in Cork to 1.3 degrees in Dublin.
