TL;DR: With two months still to go, European Union scientists declared overnight that 2023 is on track to be the hottest in 125,000 years, with October a full 0.4 degrees celcius warmer than the previous record.
That’s the equivalent of someone breaking Usain Bolt’s record for the 100 metres of 9.58 seconds by half a second. The warming of oceans is also making it one of the wettest on record for rainfall on land, including the wettest ever for Auckland by a large margin, as these charts show.
So why isn’t this front page news or leading the 6pm bulletins?
Here’s the details for any news editors reading this, via Reuters
Paying subscribers can see more detail below the paywall fold and hear more of my analysis in the podcast above. I’ve included more above the fold today because it’s of public interest and this fits with the public journalism ethos backed by subscribers, who I thank in advance.
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Map/Chart combo of the day
Warmer oceans mean more moisture in the atmosphere
Here’s NIWA Meteorologist Ben Noll with detail on the map above and the chart below:
You have probably heard about October 2023 being the warmest October on record by a wide margin, but what about atmospheric moisture?
A warmer world is a moister world and that's evidenced by a weather variable called "total column water" or "precipitable water", the total moisture amount in a column of air, from the ground all the way up to the top of the atmosphere.
In October 2023, total column water was above normal across 67% of the planet, shaded blue on this map. Higher atmospheric moisture content loads the dice toward extreme rainfall events Ben Noll via X
Off the charts
Cartoon of the day
Ka kite ano
Bernard
2023 set to be hottest year in 125,000 years