Record September puts 2023 on track to be warmest year, says Copernicus

Last September was the warmest on record so far globally and this year is on track to become the warmest on record, according to the latest bulletin from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).

The European institution reported that in September the surface air temperature reached an average of 16.38 ºC globally, 0.93 ºC above the average for this month during the period between 1991 and 2020.

In addition, this average is half a degree above the temperature recorded during what was until now the warmest September in statistics, that of 2020, according to the Bonn-based agency.

The difference reaches 1.75 ºC with respect to the average for the period 1850-1900, the pre-industrial period used as a reference to measure the effects of climate change.

For the months of January to September, the average global temperature was 0.52 ºC above average and 0.05 ºC above the warmest January to September period recorded so far, in 2016.

Looking only at Europe, this month of September was 2.51 ºC warmer than the average for the period 1991-2000 and was 1.1 ºC above what this record held until now, that of 2020.

Samantha Burgess, the deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, stressed that these “unprecedented” temperatures for the time of year have broken records by a wide margin.

“This extreme month has pushed 2023 to the dubious honor of first place, on track to become the warmest year and 1.4ºC above pre-industrial average temperatures,” he declared.

“With two months to go until COP28, the sense of urgency for ambitious climate action has never been more essential,” he stressed, referring to the climate conference to be held this year in Dubai.

Other data from the bulletin published today shows that ice extent in Antarctica remained at a record low for this time of year, while in the Arctic it reached its sixth lowest annual minimum.

On the other hand, in September weather conditions were wetter than usual in the Iberian Peninsula and other areas of Western Europe, as well as in Greece, due to the effects of Storm Daniel, which also caused deadly floods in Libya.

Extreme rainfall was also recorded in southern Chile and southern Brazil, while parts of Europe, the southeastern United States, Mexico and Central Asia remained unusually dry and Australia suffered its driest September on record..