The first of several global climate analyses for the month of September is now in, and the warmth it documents is simply astonishing.
As Zeke Hausfather of Berkeley Earth put it on Twitter: "This month was, in my professional opinion as a climate scientist – absolutely gobsmackingly bananas."
During September, the average air temperature at the surface was 0.5 degrees C (1.674 degrees F) above the 1991-2020 average for the month, according to the European Copernicus Climate Change Service. That's the biggest jump in temperature over the long-term average ever seen for any month in the Copernicus dataset, which goes back to 1940.
The month was about 1.75 degrees C (3.15 F) above the 1850-1900 preindustrial average temperature for September. That's significant because most nations of the world have committed to trying to hold global heating to below 1.5 degrees C in an attempt to minimize even worse climate change ...
