Earth’s average surface temperature landed at 16.38 degrees, which is 0.93 degrees above the average for September between 1991 and 2020. And it was 0.5 degrees warmer than the previous warmest September temperature, recorded in 2020.
“The unprecedented temperatures observed in September – following a record summer – have broken records by exceptionally large margins. This extreme month has, with the dubious honor of pushing 2023 into first place – on course to be the hottest year on record and 1.4 degrees warmer compared to pre-industrial times,” says Samantha Burgess, deputy director at Copernicus, in a press release.
According to previous statistics from Copernicus, 2023 up to August was the second warmest year on record, after the record-warming 2016.