Driving the news: Months of hotter-than-normal weather have made the planet go from a 46.8% chance of having the warmest year on record at the end of July, to a greater than 99% chance of this outcome now, according to new data from NOAA.
- September’s air and ocean temperatures shattered global records, with NOAA and NASA each confirming early data that indicated it was a highly unusual month.
September was the most unusually warm month ever recorded in the agency’s 174 years of instrument records, with a temperature anomaly of 1.44°C (2.59°F).
What they’re saying: “September 2023 was the fourth month in a row of record-warm global temperatures,” said Sarah Kapnick, NOAA’s chief scientist, in a statement.
- “Not only was it the warmest September on record, it was far and away the most atypically warm month of any in NOAA’s 174 years of climate keeping. To put it another way, September 2023 was warmer than the average July from 2001-2010.”
By the numbers: NASA data, which is processed using different methods, also showed that September was a shockingly warm month — with a temperature anomaly of 1.47°C (2.6°F).
- This was the most unusually warm month on record in NASA’s data set as well.
The intrigue: Scientists are trying to determine what exactly is driving the extreme heat this year, in addition to human-caused climate change. Some factors are well-understood, such as a sudden flip from a three-year La Niña, which slightly cools the globe, to a warming El Niño. But there may be unknown factors involved as well.