Autumn in Europe third warmest on record, new data shows

A World Meteorological Organization report from last month found the Greenland ice sheet lost mass for the 26th consecutive year and in 2022 — for the first time — it rained rather than snowed during September. Picture: AP /Felipe Dana

Autumn in Europe has been the third warmest on record, with the west of the continent experiencing particularly higher temperatures than normal.

The EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service latest data show that globally, November was the fifth warmest recorded — cooler globally than the Novembers of 2012 and 2015 to 2021, but warmer than all other Novembers.

The UK experienced its third warmest autumn in a data record extending back to 1884, with only 2006 and 2011 warmer, while autumn temperatures for south-western France were higher than any in modern records.

Worrying trends were again observed in Greenland, with unusually mild temperatures in November. 

A World Meteorological Organization report from last month found the Greenland ice sheet lost mass for the 26th consecutive year and in 2022 — for the first time — it rained rather than snowed during September.

"Seasonal average temperatures over Greenland were very much higher than the climatological average for the season, a reflection of exceptional temperatures over each of the last three months," Copernicus said of its own latest data.

The Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic circle also saw higher temperatures than normal during November, Copernicus said

The Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic circle, Iceland, and southern Norway also saw higher temperatures than normal during November, Copernicus said.

The season as a whole was also notably warmer than average over much of Canada, the Middle East, eastern Asia, southern Chile and Argentina, and parts of Antarctica, it added.

European-average temperature anomalies are generally larger and more variable than global anomalies, Copernicus said.

"The European-average temperature for November 2022 was 1.36C above the 1991-2020 average. The month was Europe’s fifth warmest November on record, about 0.4C cooler than November 2015, the warmest November, and cooler also than the Novembers of 2020, 2009 and 2000."

For the three months of autumn as a whole, the average temperature for Europe from September to November 2022 was just marginally under 1C above the 1991-2020 average for the season. 

Only the autumn of 2020 was almost 0.5C warmer, and that of 2006 was warmer by less than 0.1C, Copernicus said.

Deputy director of Copernicus Samantha Burgess said: "Temperatures over many ocean regions were mild, particularly in the northern European seas and North Atlantic. Other marine areas that experienced above-average surface air temperature include the western Mediterranean and most of the oceans neighbouring Antarctica."

Copernicus is observing closely how these trends in above-average temperatures develop, she added.

Over the last year a whole globally, it was 0.31C warmer than the 1991-2020 average.

The average global temperature for the 12 months to November this year is around 1.2C above the 1850-1900 level.

According to the Paris agreement of 2015, a temperature rise limit of 1.5C is the number that scientists say is needed to stave off the very worst climate change fallout, leading to extreme weather patterns causing mass destruction getting even worse.

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