Non-polar (60 °N – 60 °S) global averaged sea surface temperature from 1982-2023 from (top) daily OISSTv2.1 and (bottom) monthly ERSSTv5 datasets. The thick black lines represent the 1982-2011 average across the calendar year; 2022 (orange line), 2023 (thick red line), and 2016 (the year of record warmth before 2023; thin red line) are highlighted. The thin grey lines represent all other years. The top graph indicates that 2023 reached record warm levels since mid-March in OISST; however, the bottom graph indicates that peak temperatures in ERSST have not clearly exceeded the record warmth of March 2016 in that dataset. Nevertheless, both datasets indicate that April 2023 was warmer than any previous April on record. NOAA Climate.gov image based on graphs by Boyin Huang and data from NCEI.