Record-shattering September heat keeps 2023 on track as hottest year on record

In climate news, new data show global average surface temperatures last month shattered the previous record for September, rising to a staggering 1.8 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.  That’s well above the Paris Climate Agreement’s limit of 1.5 degrees of warming — and half a degree warmer than the previous record. This follows the hottest August and the hottest July ever recorded.

In northeastern India, at least 14 people are dead and over 100 are missing after extreme rainfall in the state of Sikkim caused a dam to partially collapse, washing away roads and bridges and flooding an army base.

In Brazil, scientists are blaming an unprecedented heat wave for the deaths of over 150 endangered pink river dolphins in a lake in Brazil’s Amazonas state, where water temperatures reached 102 degrees Fahrenheit. Brazilian authorities say the Amazon rainforest is facing a severe drought that could affect a half-million people by the end of 2023.  

This comes as a new study in the journal Science Advances finds monsoon rains that sustain the Amazon rainforest are nearing a critical destabilization point and could soon drop by 30%, leading to a dieback of the forest.