The month of September that ended this Saturday may have been the hottest ever recorded in human history, according to meteorological data from several countries.
Austria, France, Germany, Poland and Switzerland announced this Friday that the month was the hottest on record, in a year that is also expected to be the hottest in human history due to climate change. This, after the European Union’s climate monitor said in early September that global summer temperatures in the northern hemisphere were the highest ever recorded.
The French meteorological authority, Méteo-France, stated that the average temperature in September in the country should be 21.5 degrees Celsius (ºC), between 3.5 ºC and 3.6 ºC above the reference period 1991-2020. . For almost two years, average temperatures in France have systematically exceeded monthly norms and in the first week of the month they reached 38.8 ºC.
In neighboring Germany, the DWD meteorological institute declared that the ninth month of the year was the warmest since national records exist, almost 4ºC above the reference value for the period 1961-1990.
The Polish Meteorological Institute announced that the temperatures of the month were 3.6 ºC above the average and the highest for the month since records have been kept for more than a hundred years.
The national meteorological institutes of Austria and Switzerland also recorded the highest average temperatures in history in September, a day after a study revealed that Swiss glaciers lost 10% of their volume in two years due to extreme temperatures.
Next door, in Spain, there are cases such as Córdoba, in the south of the country, which reached 45.7 ºC on September 5. It is even believed that nowhere else in Europe has such intense heat ever been recorded in September.
This Sunday morning, the Copernicus system warned on X (formerly Twitter) that a heat wave was occurring that was hitting the Iberian Peninsula.
In Badajoz, for example, the temperature reached 37.9 ºC this Saturday and the Spanish meteorological authorities say they expect values ten degrees Celsius above the reference values for this time of year, at least until Monday.
Go up, go up, the temperature goes up
Scientists say climate change caused by human activity is causing global temperatures to rise, with the planet warming around 1.2°C above pre-industrial levels, and the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service He told Agence France-Presse earlier this month that 2023 will likely be the hottest year humanity has ever experienced.
And thermometers should continue to rise, as the climate phenomenon known as El Niño, which warms the waters of the South Pacific and beyond, has just begun and extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts, wildfires and storms are becoming more common. frequent. and intense, causing more deaths and loss of property.
Starting November 30, world leaders will meet in Dubai to discuss ways to curb the worst effects of climate change, including limiting warming to 1.5°C, the express goal of the Paris Agreement, at the United Nations. 2015.
The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions – which implies progressively eliminating the consumption of polluting gas, oil and coal -, climate financing and increasing the production capacity of renewable energy will be the topics that will be on the table.
“Until we reach carbon neutrality, heat records will be systematically broken week after week, month after month, year after year,” the lead author of the UN climate report, François Gemenne, told AFP.
Source: TSF
