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.

The numbers are in, and scientists can now confirm what month after month of extraordinary heat worldwide began signaling long ago. Last year was Earth’s warmest by far in a century and a half.

Global temperatures started blowing past records midyear and didn’t stop. First, June was the planet’s warmest June on record. Then, July was the warmest July. And so on, all the way through December.

Averaged across last year, temperatures worldwide were 1.48 degrees Celsius, or 2.66 Fahrenheit, higher than they were in the second half of the 19th century, the European Union climate monitor announced on Tuesday. That is warmer by a sizable margin than 2016, the previous hottest year.