The United Kingdom, like much of Europe, experienced its hottest September, equaling the record set in 2006, the weather service said on Monday, blaming global warming.
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After an overall rather cool summer, the average temperature last month was 15.2°C, the same as September 2006, according to the Met Office. The temperature reached and exceeded 16.7°C in England and 15.6°C in Wales thus the records in these two states of the United Kingdom.
Scotland had its third warmest September (12.8°C), while Northern Ireland equaled the records set in 2006 and 2021 (14.2°C).
“Not only was September the hottest day of the year, which only happened four times in our observations, but there were also seven consecutive days where temperatures exceeded 30°C anywhere in the UK, which has never happened before Mark McCarthy, chief scientific officer of the Met Office, noted in a press release.
According to the weather services, if they were to explain the phenomenon with high pressures in Europe and then with Storm Agnes, such an outcome would have been “virtually impossible in a climate without greenhouse gas emissions of human origin.”
Such temperatures in September remain very unlikely (3% chance), but without global warming they would have been “almost impossible”. “This shows how climate change is moving the cursor in terms of average temperatures,” the Met Office notes.
Several countries in the rest of Europe, including France, Belgium, Switzerland and Germany, also broke heat records in September.
These observations complement those of the entire planet and are on track to break the annual temperature record in 2023.
Having already recorded the hottest quarter in history during the northern summer (June-July-August), the world is now seeing the effects of human-caused climate change, which has been exacerbated in recent months by the return of cyclical El over the Pacific became Nino phenomenon, synonymous with additional warming.