September 2020 was the hottest month of September ever recorded in history. The latest confirmation of the global warming process has come from the European climate monitoring service Copernicus, which has not ruled out that the current year as a whole could break the record set in 2016 and also prove to be the hottest on record.

Copernicus ECMWF @CopernicusECMWF

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📢September #temperature highlights from #Copernicus #C3S:

🌡️Globally and in Europe, September 2020 was the warmest September on record, with well above average temperatures in many regions
🌡️Cool La Niña conditions in eastern tropical Pacific

More ➡️bit.ly/3jBkqgj

♥ 420💬 15 7 ott 2020 · Apri su X →

2020 as a whole could also turn out to be the hottest year on record

"Globally," the European scientific service clarifies, "September 2020 was 0.05 degrees Celsius warmer than the same period in the previous year, which held the record in terms of average temperature." The value was also 0.63 degrees above the 1981–2020 average, with extraordinary peaks recorded in Siberia, which also contributed to the development of numerous and widespread wildfires.

But the heat was above average across the entire Arctic Ocean. It is no coincidence that, with the exception of 2012, the extent of the ice cap had never been so reduced during summer. In the United States, meanwhile, thermometers in California reached 49 degrees Celsius, while vast stretches of territory were affected by devastating fires.

Over the twelve months from October 2019 to September 2020, the global average temperature was 1.28 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. In particular, January, May and June 2020 each set absolute records. Likewise, the last five years as a whole represented the hottest five-year period ever recorded.

The global average temperature is rising by 0.2 degrees every decade

It is worth recalling that the 2015 Paris Agreement clearly set out the need to limit the rise in global average temperature, by 2100, to a maximum of 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. But "remaining as close as possible to 1.5 degrees", the text specifies. The difference between the two thresholds will in fact be enormous in terms of consequences for the melting of Arctic ice, biodiversity, the rise in sea levels, as well as the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.

Despite these commitments, the Copernicus service notes, the Earth's average temperature has continued to rise, on average, by 0.2 degrees every decade since the late 1970s.