October this year was the hottest on record globally, with September, August and July also breaking records.
Climate scientists have said it is virtually certain that 2023 will be the hottest year on record after four months of global temperature records being ‘obliterated’
The month was 1.7C warmer than the pre-industrial average between 1850 and 1900 – the baseline against which scientists measure how much humans have warmed the Earth by emitting greenhouse gases.So far this year, the average temperature is 1.43C higher than this pre-industrial average, making it the hottest year on record.
They added that this year is unlikely to go beyond 1.5C but even if it did the Paris Agreement goals would not be lost as that measure is taken over an average of multiple years. Samantha Burgess, deputy director of C3S: “October 2023 has seen exceptional temperature anomalies, following on from four months of global temperature records being obliterated.
Dr Friederike Otto, senior lecturer in climate science at the Grantham Institute, Imperial College London, said: “I think the most important thing to highlight here is that this is not just another record or another big number that is statistically interesting.“Within this year, extreme heatwaves and droughts made much worse by these extreme temperatures have caused thousands of deaths, people losing their livelihoods, being displaced etc.
Eastern Scotland had its wettest month on record following Storm Babet, with many other parts of the UK experiencing similar conditions.Scientists have said the UK will become warmer and wetter because of climate change as the atmosphere holds 7% more water with every degree of warming.