Global warming: “unprecedented temperature anomalies” in September

2023-10-05 13:13:46

October 05, 2023

While Public Health France announced on Wednesday the excess mortality during the September heatwave, deemed exceptional by Météo France, the Copernicus observatory published this Thursday the dizzying figures for a year 2023 which, at this stage, marks a climatic runaway. .

“Unprecedented temperature anomalies”, alert Thursday October 5 Copernicus, the European Union’s Earth observatory. « SSeptember 2023 was the hottest September on record globally, with an average surface air temperature of 16.38°C, 0.93°C above the 1991-2020 average for September and 0.5°C above the temperature of the previous hottest September in 2020.” Temperatures this month were on average 1.75°C warmer than the average over the pre-industrial period.

“Words cannot explain how abnormally big the difference is,” warns on X (formerly Twitter) Carlo Buontempo, director of C3S, Copernicus climate change department

The last bar on the right represents the temperature anomaly wrt pre-industial for the month of September 2023. 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. @CopernicusECMWF pic.twitter.com/5PpUfiTcB1

— Carlo Buontempo (@carlo_tuitter) October 5, 2023

As for July 2023, it holds the record for the hottest month ever recorded on Earth, all months combined. And the average for these first nine months of the year flirts with the symbolic bar of 1.5°C increase, i.e. the threshold below which the rise in temperatures must be maintained, set by the Paris Agreements. “From January to September 2023, the global average temperature for 2023 to date is 1.40°C higher than the pre-industrial average (1850-1900),” notes the European observatory.

Excess mortality during heatwaves in France

France is no exception. While this summer of 2023 was marked by several heatwaves, Public Health France published on Wednesday October 4 the excess mortality figures for the latest episode, considered exceptional in its intensity and duration, according to Météo France..

The fourth heatwave of the summer took place from September 3 to 11, 2023 and affected 17 departments in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Brittany, Centre-Val-de-Loire, Normandy, Pays de la Loire, Hauts-de regions. -France, Ile-de-France and New Aquitaine. According to the first data, still incomplete, an excess of at least 60 deaths was recorded, all causes combined, an increase of 2.2%. « Beyond this episode, the French population has been exposed to heat and several episodes of heatwave since the start of summer. Therefore, this estimate does not reflect the entire impact of heat on health. underlines Public Health France in its press release.

Records broken this summer France

An excess of 400 additional deaths were recorded during the heatwave at the end of August. This was 80 additional deaths for that of July. The health agency also specifies that even outside of heatwave periods, heat constitutes a health risk. “requiring the implementation of preventive measures to reduce the impact of heat on populations”.

???????? #Septembre2023 is the hottest month of September ever observed in mainland France, since measurements began in 1900.

The average temperature over the month will be well above normal (around +3.6°C – provisional value).

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[1/3] pic.twitter.com/Wi1GQ7nzeO

— Météo-France (@meteofrance) September 29, 2023

The month of June was the hottest ever recorded in several departments in the north of the country, Ile-de-France, Hauts-de-France, Brittany, Payse-de-la-Loire and Normandy. Absolute temperature records were recorded in several cities in the South during the heatwave that occurred at the end of August. Like in Carcassonne where the mercury rose to 43.2°C. September 2023 is the hottest month ever recorded in France, with temperatures on average 3.6°C above normal.

Source : Public health France, October 4, 2023 – Copernicus, October 5, 2023
Written by : Dorothée Duchemin – Edited by: Emmanuel Ducreuzet