With El Niño taking hold in 2023, the world saw another year of challenging weather events across the seven continents.Whether it was wildfires in North America, flooding on biblical scale in India, Australia and Britain or seismic events such as the devastating earthquakes in Turkey, Syria and Morocco and Iceland’s volcanic eruption, 2023 was a year in which climatic events caused death and destruction around the globe. We take a look at the biggest climate stories throughout the year as the climate crisis continued at pace.
00:00 2023 has been witness to a series of climate-related events that have broken records across the globe.
00:08 These changes have surprised scientists and triggered a wave of concerns for how quickly we can adapt to the impending dangers of extreme weather.
00:17 This year started with uncharacteristically heavy rainfall in the UK, leading to 8 flood warnings and 169 alerts being issued across England.
00:29 Large areas of flooding occurred across the UK and created mass closures on motorways and public services.
00:36 By early February, Turkey and Syria were hit with two separate earthquakes measuring as 7.8 and 7.7 seismic events.
00:46 Widespread damage affected a space the size of Germany and affected around 16% of Turkey's population, making it the largest natural disaster in the country's modern history.
00:57 Between February and March, extremely powerful tropical cyclone Freddie ravaged the southern Indian Ocean for more than five weeks.
01:06 It was the second most deadly and costly tropical cyclone in the southwest of the Indian Ocean.
01:12 With things heating up across the globe, the French Alps has lost as much of its glaciers between the years of 2022 and 2023 as it did between 1960 and 1990.
01:25 This is the second biggest annual decline on record and could prove fatal for local wildlife and tourism.
01:33 In May, Myanmar and Bangladesh were hit with a powerful tropical cyclone known as Cyclone Mokha.
01:42 Hundreds are still missing, with a large proportion of them being Rohingya refugees.
01:50 Between June and September, a heat dome expanded over southern Europe, engulfing the continent in a warm air mass that created stable and dry conditions,
02:00 with devastating effects for parts of Greece, Sardinia, Sicily, southern Italy and eastern Spain.
02:07 Further heatwaves affected western North America, with wildfires and record temperatures soaring at unprecedented rates.
02:17 This led to snow melts in mountain ranges that caused extreme floods and mudslides for local residents.
02:24 Across the Persian Gulf, the worst drought in 900 years led to an unsustainable demand for water, heavily affecting agricultural countries such as Syria and Lebanon.
02:37 From the 18th of July, a series of wildfires on the Green Island of Rhodes led to a mass evacuation of approximately 2,000 people, including tourists from two seaside resorts.
02:49 And a heavy monsoon season that yielded the highest rainfall in decades led to landslides and severe flooding across northern India.
03:06 In August, wind-fuelled wildfires broke out across Hawaii, particularly on the island of Maui, with six people still missing from the incident.
03:15 Record rainfall caused floods and landslides across the Himalayan region in India. Experts say that the heavy rainfall is the result of the climate crisis.
03:30 In late September, New York City was hit by heavy rainfall that caused mass flooding across the metropolitan areas.
03:37 A state of emergency was declared in New York City and five of its boroughs.
03:43 The second deadliest earthquake this year after the Syria-Turkey disaster occurred in Morocco's Marrakesh and Safi region.
03:51 Many of the casualties affected people in remote locations just outside of Marrakesh, with the effects of the earthquake being felt as far as Spain and Algeria.
04:00 The deadliest Mediterranean cyclone in recorded history, Storm Daniel, acquired uncharacteristic tropical power that moved across the coast of Libya and caused devastating floods.
04:15 By October, a powerful Category 5 hurricane hit the west of Acapulco and became the strongest Pacific hurricane on record to make landfall.
04:24 At the height of its strength, wind speeds had a maximum sustained power of 165 miles an hour.
04:31 A red alert was issued for areas across the UK as Storm Babette hit the country and made a huge impact on agriculture and travel.
04:44 The Antarctic ice pack continued on a negative trend as it was recorded that this year was the smallest mass ever recorded, with the climate crisis being the biggest aggravating factor.
04:58 In November, Storm Ciarán continued to batter Western Europe with extreme flooding being seen across Tuscany, central Italy and Portugal.
05:11 In Tanzania, deadly landslides caused by flooding hit the town of Katesh, 186 miles away from the capital Dodoma.
05:19 Livestock were swept away and roads were blocked by dislodged trees and water.
05:25 China was hit by the deadliest earthquake in years when a 6.2 magnitude quake struck the Gansu province around midnight.
05:35 Entire villages were split by the devastation of the earthquake that caused over 5,000 buildings to be damaged by tremors that were described like being tossed by surging waves.
05:46 Around 4,000 people were evacuated from the fishing town of Grindervik after a long-awaited volcano erupted on the southwest of Iceland.
05:57 The eruption is suspected to have caused extensive gas pollution that can be felt from the country's capital of Reykjavik, although it's not suspected to have caused as much as the previous Icelandic volcano eruption in 2010.