According to the US climate agency NOAA, there is a probability of more than 99 percent that the current year will be the warmest since records began. For the period January to September, 2023 has already set the record, NOAA said. Accordingly, June, July, August and September each recorded the hottest monthly value. The warmest year so far was 2016.
September particularly stood out this year. “It was not only the warmest September on record, but also by far the most atypical month in the 174 years that NOAA has been monitoring the climate,” said NOAA chief scientist Sarah Kapnick, according to the statement. The global average temperature for September was 1.44 degrees Celsius above the 20th century average. This was the largest deviation ever recorded for a month, writes NOAA.
The EU climate change service Copernicus recently reported that this September was 1.75 degrees warmer than the average temperature for this month in the pre-industrial reference period from 1850 to 1900. The average temperatures in 2023 have so far been 1.4 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels . That is only 0.1 degrees below the 1.5 degrees set as the climate target of the Paris Climate Agreement, which should not be exceeded in the long term by the end of the century.
According to NOAA, September reached record highs for the month in Africa, Europe, North and South America, and Antarctica. In the Arctic and in Asia, it was the second warmest September since records began. According to a preliminary assessment by the German Weather Service, Germany also experienced its warmest September since measurements began.
The natural climate phenomenon El Niño is currently gaining influence. An El Niño can increase temperatures, which are already constantly rising as a result of the climate crisis.
