According to the European climate agency, Earth is on track for its warmest year yet
The warmest month of the past 83 years of Copernicus data: Anomalies, destruction, recovery, and global warming
Last month’s average temperature was 0.93 degrees Celsius (1.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 1991-2020 average for September. That’s the warmest margin above average for a month in 83 years of records kept by the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at the Imperial College of London, explained in an email that this is not a fancy weather stat. “It’s a death sentence for people and ecosystems. Assets, infrastructure, harvest are destroyed.
While July and August had hotter raw temperatures because they are warmer months on the calendar, September had what scientists call the biggest anomaly, or departure from normal. Temperature anomalies are crucial pieces of data in a warming world.
Earth is on track for a warmest year ever, with an average temperature of about 2.5 degrees hotter than pre-industrial times.
The global threshold goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius is for long-term temperature averages, not a single month or year. Scientists expressed grave concern about the records being set.
“There really is no end in sight given new oil and gas reserves are still being opened for exploitation,” Otto said. There is no respite for humans and nature when you have more hot events.
The average temperature in September was 0.93C above the 1991-2020 average for September, making it the warmest month since Copernicus Climate Change Service started keeping records 83 years ago. Earth is on track for a warmest year ever, with an average temperature of about 2.5C hotter than pre-industrial times. The global threshold goal of 1.5C is for long-term temperature averages.