With an average temperature of 16.38°C on the surface of the globe, the past month of September is an “unprecedented anomaly”, exceeding the September 2020 record by a surprising 0.5°C, announces the European observatory Copernicus.
“September 2023 was the hottest September ever recorded globally”, beating the previous 2020 record by an “extraordinary” margin and continuing a series of global monthly records started in June, the European observatory announced on Thursday Copernicus.
September 2023 is “1.75°C warmer than the average September over the period 1850-1900”, before the effect on the climate of humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions, added the observatory.
“We have entered a new world”
“We have just experienced the most incredible month of September from a climatic point of view,” warns the director of the climate change service at the European Copernicus observatory, Carlo Buontempo.
“It boggles the mind: not only was September the hottest on record globally, but the difference is almost a degree above the average (over the period 1991-2020) and half a degree above the previous record of 2020. We have entered a new world,” he warns.
While variations in global temperatures are generally measured in a few tenths of a degree, September 2023 is 0.9°C above the September average over the period 1991-2020, i.e. “the strongest monthly anomaly” ever measured by Copernicus, whose complete database dates back to 1940.
The planet is overheating
All continents were affected by extraordinary anomalies. In Europe, September 2023 set a new continental record for the first month of meteorological autumn; it was over 35°C in France until the beginning of October.
In the same month, torrential rains from Storm Daniel, likely worsened by climate change according to preliminary studies, devastated northeastern Libya and Greece.
The south of Brazil and Chile also experienced the flood in September while the Amazon is currently hit by an extreme drought, which affects more than 500,000 inhabitants.
And the poles are losing ice: the Antarctic sea ice remains at a record low level for the season, while the Arctic sea ice is 18% below average, according to the C3S.
“The world is falling apart”
The overheating of the world’s seas, which absorb 90% of the excess heat caused by human activity since the industrial era, plays a major role in these observations. For the Copernicus measurement system, the average sea temperature reached 20.92°C in September, a new monthly record and the 2nd highest measurement behind August 2023.
Faced with this situation, humanity’s responses are “insufficient as the world (…) collapses” and approaches a “breaking point”, lamented Pope Francis on Wednesday in a text in the form of a cry of alarm two months before a decisive UN climate conference.
During this COP28, in Dubai, the theme of phasing out fossil fuels will be at the heart of tough negotiations between countries, unable to date to reconcile the requirements of the Paris agreement to limit warming and ensure the aspirations for the development of all humanity