Second-warmest September on Record: EU Climate Monitor

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Last month was the second-warmest September ever recorded globally in an exceptional year “almost certain” to be the hottest on record, EU climate researcher Copernicus said on Tuesday.

September saw heavy rainfall and devastating storms around the world, events that are becoming more severe and frequent as temperatures rise due to climate change.

The average global temperature last month was second only to that of September 2023, said Copernicus, who uses billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations to help make the calculations.

Last year was the hottest on record, but 2024 looks set to beat that.

Global warming is not just about rising temperatures, but the knock on effect is more heat trapped in the atmosphere and oceans.

Warmer air can store more water vapor, and warmer oceans mean more discharge, affecting precipitation and causing heavy rain and storms.

In September some parts of the country saw “a month’s worth of rain in a few days,” said Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

“The heavy rain events this month, something we’re seeing more often, have been exacerbated by the warm air,” Burgess said.

“The risk of extreme precipitation will continue to increase with rising temperatures.”

In a month of extreme weather, Hurricane Helene hit the southeastern United States, Hurricane Krathon hit Taiwan and Storm Boris brought flooding and destruction to central Europe.

Typhoons Yagi and Bebinca left a trail of destruction in Asia as deadly floods hit Nepal, Japan and west and central Africa.

Copernicus said wetter than average conditions also hit parts of Africa, Russia, China, Australia and Brazil, while Pakistan was “severely” affected by the monsoon.

Copernicus said the months of January to September 2024 are already at their peak “making it certain that 2024 will be the warmest year on record”.

Fourteen of the last fifteen months have been about 1.5 degrees Celsius above the average temperature seen in the pre-industrial era, which is taken to be the period between 1850-1900.

This does not represent a violation of the Paris climate agreement, which seeks to limit global warming to below 2C and possibly 1.5C, because it is measured over decades and not individual years.

But scientists have warned that the 1.5C cap is slipping away from reach.

The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that the disruption is likely to occur sometime between 2030 and 2035.

Greenhouse gas emissions, especially from the burning of fossil fuels, have increased in recent years, although scientists say they should decrease by half this decade.

Taken together, the country’s policy to cut emissions could lead to 2.9C of warming by 2100, according to the UN Environment Programme.

Much of this extreme heat is stored in the oceans, which cover 70 percent of the earth’s surface, and serve as a major climate changer.

The rate of ocean warming has doubled since 2005 due to human-induced climate change, Copernicus said in September.

This leads to strong and frequent hot water and high acidity of the sea, which over a certain area can cause the sea water to destroy some marine life.

The records of Copernicus go back to 1940 but other data sources such as glaciers, tree rings and coral reefs allow scientists to extend their conclusions using evidence much deeper in the past.

Climate scientists say that the time we are living now is probably the hottest on earth for the last 100,000 years, back at the beginning of the last Ice Age.

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