September Heat Was Downright 'Flabbergasting,' Data Shows

Climate experts are sounding the alarm about "unprecedented" and "flabbergasting" data included in a new report that says last month was the hottest September on record.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), a climate information service provided through the European Union's space-focused Copernicus Program, on Thursday released a global temperature report focused on September 2023. The report found global temperatures last month exceeded those of September 2020, which was previously the warmest September on record.

Temperatures last month were 0.5 degrees Celsius higher than temperatures in September 2020 and 0.93 degrees Celsius higher than average global temperatures for September recorded between 1991 and 2020. The month was also about 1.75 degrees Celsius warmer than the average temperatures for September during the 1850 to 1900 pre-industrial era, the report summary said.

"Unprecedented!" C3S Deputy Director Samantha Burgess said of the data on X, formerly Twitter. "The anomaly for September 2023 is: the largest warm anomaly of any month of any year in the ERA dataset (back to 1940)."

C3S Director Carlo Buontempo also marveled over the month's unusual global surface air temperatures on X. "Words can't easily convey how abnormally large this is: by far the warmest September on record; no other month ever reached anomalies as large," he wrote.

Buontempo later pointed to Ed Hawkins, a climate scientist at the University of Reading's National Centre for Atmospheric Science in the United Kingdom who did try to describe his reaction to the data on X.

"Surprising. Astounding. Staggering. Unnerving. Bewildering. Flabbergasting. Disquieting. Gobsmacking. Shocking. Mind boggling," Hawkins' post said.

The data marks the fourth time in a row that a month in 2023 has set a new global record. The trend began at the start of the summer when June 2023 became the hottest June on record. The pattern continued in July and again in August.

Climate scientists said July 2023 was not only the hottest July on record, but the hottest month ever recorded. The data spurred calls to action from experts like NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, who said people "must act now to protect our communities and planet."

The new September record leaves this year "on track" to become the world's hottest ever recorded, C3S's report said.

The warning comes less than two months before this year's United Nations Climate Change Conference, which begins November 30 in Dubai. A website for the conference describes the event as a "milestone moment" for the world to "take stock of its progress on the Paris Agreement," which aims to keep global temperatures from rising about 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

By August 2023, global temperatures had increased to 1.23 degrees Celsius about pre-industrial levels, according to C3S data. C3S experts predict the world will reach 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by December 2034.

Newsweek reached out to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UN Climate Change) by email on Thursday for comment.