September 2024: The hottest in more than three decades
Meteorologists believe this year in Spain will “almost certainly” be the warmest ever
The latest climate bulletin from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) has revealed that September 2024 was the warmest month globally since 1991, and the second warmest in Europe. The average temperature for the month reached a sizzling 16.17°C, a significant 0.73°C above the average for this time of year.
But September's record-breaking heat is just the tip of the iceberg. According to the C3S, the global average temperature for the 12-month period from October 2023 to September 2024 is the second highest on record, with a staggering 0.74°C increase above the 1991-2020 average.
This means that the past year has been the warmest on record, with the anomaly needing to drop by more than 0.4°C before the end of the year for 2024 to not be warmer than 2023.
But this is very unlikely to happen. In Spain, the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) has already made its predictions for the remainder of the year, and the experts believe that October, November and December will be much hotter and drier than usual, particularly in the south of the country.
It will come as no surprise that around the world, 2024 has been a year marked by extreme heat, a worrying sign of the accelerating effects of climate change. In fact, the Climate Change Service highlighted in its report that this year will “almost certainly” be the warmest on record.
Another disquieting observation is the average sea surface temperature, which reached 20.83°C this September – the second highest value ever for that month, after September 2023. What’s more, the data show that the daily extent of Arctic sea ice reached its sixth lowest annual minimum, while the monthly extent of sea ice ranked fifth lowest in the satellite record.
In Europe, the average temperature for September 2024 was a sweltering 1.74°C above the average for September between 1991 and 2020, making it the warmest in history The heat was particularly pronounced in Eastern and North-Eastern Europe, while Western Europe actually experienced below-average temperatures.
The report also highlights the extreme weather events that occurred in September 2024, including Storm Boris, which caused heavy rain, flooding and damage in central and eastern Europe. In contrast, the month was drier than average in Ireland, the north of the United Kingdom and a large part of far eastern Europe and the west and south of the Iberian Peninsula, where severe forest fires were observed.
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