This past November was the warmest November on record worldwide, with an average surface air temperature of 14.22°C, 0.85°C above the 1991-2020 average for this month. month and 0.32°C above the temperature of November 2020, which had been the warmest November to date.
So far this year - from January to November - the average global temperature in 2023 has been the highest since records began: 1.46ºC above the pre-industrial era average and 0.13ºC above the eleven-year period. equivalent months of 2016, the warmest calendar year on record.
This means that in just two decades we are approaching the limit of 1.5ºC of warming that experts indicate as the limit so that the climate crisis does not have devastating and irreversible consequences for the environment and life on Earth.
These are the data provided by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), implemented through the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on behalf of the European Commission with funds from the European Union.
"In six months of 2023, records have been broken and in two of the seasons too. The extraordinary global temperatures in November, which had two days with temperatures 2ºC above the pre-industrial temperature, make 2023 the warmest year in history for as long as records have existed," says Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
The global temperature anomaly in November 2023 was equal to that of October 2023, and only lower than that of September 2023 (0.93°C). Specifically, this November was 1.75ºC warmer than the average estimated for a month of November from 1850-1900, the pre-industrial reference period.
Likewise, the extent of sea ice in the Arctic reached its eighth lowest level for a month of November, 4% lower than average, which is a figure well above the minimum value for a month of November, recorded in 2016 (13% lower than average).
Regarding the extent of Antarctic sea ice, it was the second lowest for the month of November, 9% below the average, after having reached historical minimum levels for the time of year with wide margins for six consecutive months.
Copernicus publishes monthly climate bulletins reporting changes in surface air temperature, sea ice coverage and hydrological variables on a global scale.
All results are based on computer-generated analysis and based on the ERA5 data set using billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world.
