First June, then July, August and now September. Each month this year is taking over the other to register as the warmest ever. According to the latest EU Climate Monitor, the September of 2023 is the warmest September on record globally, 0.93C above the average temperature for the same month in 1991-2020, and the global temperature of the month was the most atypical warm month of any year in the ERA5 dataset, which dates back to 1940.
On Thursday, October 5, European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said that this year is on track to become the hottest on record, with the global mean temperature to date this year 0.52 degrees Celsius higher than average.
The average sea surface temperature for September over 60°S–60°N reached 20.92C, which is the highest on record for September and the second highest across all months, behind August 2023, Copernicus said.
A major factor this year has been El Nino combined with the already changing climate. El Nino weather pattern is warming the surface waters in the eastern and central Pacific Ocean, and have thus, fuelled recent record-breaking temperatures.
“The unprecedented temperatures for the time of year observed in September – following a record summer – have broken records by an extraordinary amount. This extreme month has pushed 2023 into the dubious honor of first place – on track to be the warmest year and around 1.4C above preindustrial average temperatures,” Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of Copernicus, said in a statement.
The global temperature for January-September is also 1.4C higher than the preindustrial average (from the years 1850 to 1900), the institute added, as climate change pushes global temperatures to new records and short-term weather patterns also drive temperature movements.
Last year was not a record, though the world was 1.2C warmer than pre-industrial times. The previous record belonged to 2016 and 2020 when temperatures were an average of 1.25 degrees C higher.
It will be interesting to see how the upcoming COP28 will discuss and deliberate on the rising earth’s temperature and the wreck it has had in different parts of the world.
(Input from Reuters)