According to a report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the month of September 2019 continued a long-running trend of a warming global climate. It ties with September 2015 as the warmest September on the 140-year record, and shows that 2019 as a whole is heading for a spot in the top three hottest years ever.
In September 2019, the average global land and ocean temperature was 60.71° F (15.95° C), which is 1.71° F (0.95° C) higher than the 20th century average. That makes it the highest for September – tied with September 2015 – since records began in 1880. The warmest five Septembers have all fallen within the last five years, and the 10 warmest have all occurred since 2005.
For the Northern Hemisphere alone, this month turned out to be the hottest September on record, at 2.23° F (1.24° C) warmer than average. Things weren’t as drastic in the Southern Hemisphere though, which recorded its seventh-warmest September ever.
But it’s the longer-term trend that’s particularly worrying, though. This year marked the 43rd consecutive September to have temperatures above the 20th century average, and in fact, it’s the 417th consecutive month – period – with above-average temperatures. That means the last month with below-average temperatures was January 1985.
NOAA’s latest report also looked at the year to date period of January to September 2019, and found it to be the second-warmest such period on record. It was 1.69° F (0.94° C) above the 20th century average, making it second only to the same period in 2016 and just slightly warmer than that of 2017.
Individually, each month in the period January to September 2019 was in the five warmest for the respective month, with July 2019 claiming the “honor” of the hottest individual month ever recorded.
Overall, with only a few months left it looks like 2019 is on track to leave its mark in the record books. We’ll have to wait until early next year to get the full picture, but it seems that 2016 will continue to hold onto its crown as the hottest year on record, with 2019 slotting into second place. After that comes 2017, then 2015 and 2018.
The full report is available online at NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.
