October was warmest October on record

October 2023 was the hottest October since records began in 1940, according to the EU climate change service Copernicus, as one senior researcher said that global temperature records were being “obliterated.”

The average surface air temperature of 15.3 degrees Celsius was 0.85 degrees above the average for the month between 1991 and 2020 and 0.4 degrees above the warmest October to date in 2019.

In Europe, it was the fourth-warmest October, which was 1.3 degrees above average.

“We can say with near certainty that 2023 will be the warmest year on record and is currently 1.43 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average,’’ said Samantha Burgess.

Burgess is a deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).

“The sense of urgency for ambitious climate action going into COP28 has never been higher,’’ she said, looking ahead to the upcoming climate conference in Dubai.

The calendar year to date from January to October has been 0.1 degrees warmer than the 10-month average for 2016, the warmest calendar year to date.

The past month was 1.7 degrees warmer than the estimated average for the period between 1850 and 1900, the so-called pre-industrial reference period.

“October 2023 has seen exceptional temperature anomalies, following on from four months of global temperature records being obliterated,’’ said Burgess.