As September registered unprecedented temperatures to become the fourth consecutive month of this year, 2023 is on track to be the hottest in recorded history, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Data released by the Service on Wednesday revealed that September beat the previous monthly record set in 2020 by a staggering 0.5 degrees Celsius, reports CNN.
There has never been a month so abnormally hot since Copernicus’ records began in 1940, it said.
“The unprecedented temperatures for the time of year observed in September — following a record summer — have broken records by an extraordinary amount,” Samantha Burgess, deputy director of Copernicus, said in a statement.
September had an average global air temperature of 16.38 degrees Celsius, making the month 0.93 degrees Celsius hotter than the 1991 to 2020 average, and 1.75 degrees Celsius hotter than the September average for the pre-industrial era, before the world started burning large amounts of fossil fuels.
The month also witnessed devastating floods in Libya and Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey that killed thousands of people.
While Canada grappled with its unprecedented wildfire season, parts of South America were scorched by record-breaking heat.
Meanwhile, New York was flooded with record rainfall.
Ocean temperatures also shattered records in September, CNN reported.
The average sea surface temperatures reached 20.92 degrees Celsius, the highest on record for September and the second-highest on record for any month, after August of this year.
Antarctic sea ice also reached record lows for this time of year.
Due to these record-breaking events, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has put the chances of 2023 to becoming the hottest on record at more than 93 per cent.