Siberia Burned. Arctic Ice Shrank. This Was the World ’s Hottest September Ever

Well, we’ve done it again. Last month was the warmest September on record, blazing past September 2019’s record global average by 0.05°C, and 2016’s by 0.08°C, according to the latest report from the European Commission-backed Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), which tracks global climate trends. If you’re not surprised given past trends, you’re not alone. “In a way it would have been more surprising if suddenly we had seen the 10th warmest September on record, instead of the warmest,” says Freja Vamborg, Senior Scientist at C3S and lead author of the report. The record is not in itself significant, she adds. “But put together with past monthly records, and the fact that the last five years have also been the warmest on record, it shows that there is an ongoing trend in increasing global temperatures.” At the current rate, 2020 is well on its way towards cracking 2016’s record for the hottest global averages over the course of a year. In a year already defined by the record melting of Greenland’s glaciers, near-record levels of shrinking Arctic sea ice, wildfires blazing across Siberia, and the hottest temperature ever recorded in Antarctica, this is one superlative we could do without. September’s was not even the first monthly record to tumble this year. May 2020 was also the hottest May on record, with temperatures in Siberia a full 10°C above average. That’s the difference bet...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Londontime Source Type: news