Copernicus: Hottest September On Record
The average September temperature was 16.38°C
According to the European Union’s Copernicus service, last September was the warmest on record. This data complements last summer’s findings by the Copernicus Climate Change Service, which said that “the warm season” of 2023 was the hottest ever recorded.
The Copernicus program consists of observing the Earth using a set of systems that collect information from satellites, as well as land-based, sea-based, and airborne sensors.
A report published today emphasizes that the average surface air temperature in September was 16.38 degrees, which is 0.93 degrees higher than the average for the same month of the year for the period 1991-2020. The previous record that belonged to September 2020 was surpassed by 0.5 degrees. This was the “hottest month” recorded since 1940, and compared with the pre-industrial period (1850-1900), the increase was as much as 1.75 degrees. What is worrying, according to Copernicus’s explanation, is the scale of temperature rise: the limits are usually exceeded with very small tolerances.
“Unprecedented temperatures for this time of year in September, following an unprecedented summer, broke records in extraordinary numbers,” according to Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) deputy director Samantha Burgess. “This extreme month pushed 2023 to the dubious honor of first place, on track to becoming the warmest year and temperatures some 1.4°C above pre-industrial average temperatures. Two months before COP28, the sense of urgency for ambitious climate action has never been more critical.”