Last year was the hottest ever recorded, according to temperature data going back to 1850. And it beat the previous record by a wide margin, according to new data released by the European Union's weather and climate monitoring agency, Copernicus.

2023 beat out 2016, the previous leader for hottest recorded global average temperature, by nearly two-tenths of a degree Celsius (about four-tenths of a degree Fahrenheit), according to the E.U. data. The high average temperatures reflected record-high ocean temperatures globally and were exacerbated by a strong El Ni?o climate pattern.

Global temperatures last year were nearly 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than average global temperatures in the late 1800s, when humans first began emitting large amounts of planet-warming carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels like coal and oil.