RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – The calendar may be flipping to November next week, but NOAA and NASA recently released stats on just how much of a scorcher September was across the globe. It was the warmest September on record on Earth since at least 1880. This graph is particularly telling.
There are over 150 individual lines here, which signifies each year’s (back to the 1880s) average temperature difference from the 1980-2015 mean. Essentially, it tracks how much our planet has been warming over the decades. It’s obvious where 2023 lands; it sticks out like a sore thumb. September marked the fourth month in a row of record warmth.
Back home in the Triangle, 2023 checks in with the warmest first nine months of the year (year to date) since records began in 1887. We’re half a degree warmer than in 2017.
After a solid taste of fall the past few days, the summer-like warmth returns later this week. We haven’t dropped into the 30s at RDU yet this fall and if it doesn’t happen Monday night, it probably won’t happen until November. Central North Carolina is in the bullseye of above-average temperatures to cap off October. We probably have not seen the last 80° high temperature of 2023!
