The C3S’s annual report says northern India and Pakistan experienced a two-month heatwave last spring, with temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius, followed in Pakistan by flooding that covered a third of the country and affected 33 million people.

France, Britain, Spain, and Italy set new average temperature records in 2022, with Europe as a whole enduring its second hottest year ever. Heatwaves across the continent were compounded by severe drought conditions. European temperatures have showed the highest rate of increase of any continent on the globe.

Large swathes of the Middle East, China, central Asia, and northern Africa also saw unprecedented warmth in 2022.

Earth's polar regions saw record temperatures last year. The remote Vostok station deep in the interior of Antarctica reached a relatively balmy minus 17.7C, the warmest temperature ever measured in its 65-year history.

Antarctic sea ice reached it smallest extent in the 44-year satellite record in February, during the southern hemisphere summer.

At the other end of the globe, Greenland experienced September temperatures 8C higher than average, accelerating ice sheet loss that has become a major contributor to sea level rise.