Copernicus: Hottest October on record in Europe

Surface temperature anomaly for October 2022 relative to the October average for the period 1991–2020. Data source: ERA5. Source: Copernicus Climate Change Service/ECMWF.

Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S)Implemented by the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on behalf of the European Commission, it regularly publishes monthly climate bulletins reporting on changes observed globally. surface air temperature, Sea ice And Hydrological variables. All of the reported findings are based on computer-generated analyzes using billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world.

Surface Air Temperature in October 2022:

• Europe recorded its warmest October on record, with temperatures nearly 2°C warmer than the 1991-2020 reference period.
• A warmer period brought the highest daytime temperatures on record in Western Europe and the hottest October on record in Austria, Switzerland and France, as well as large parts of Italy and Spain.
• Canada, Greenland and Siberia experienced record heat and much warmer than average weather.
• Areas of colder than average temperatures were observed in parts of Australia, Far Eastern Russia and West Antarctica.

Average percentiles for near-surface air temperature for October 2022. Color categories indicate percentiles for the temperature distribution calculated from the 1991–2020 reference period. The “Warm” category refers to the period 1979-2022 (see full description below). Source: Copernicus Climate Change Service/ECMWF.

Sea ice conditions in October 2022:

• Arctic sea ice extent was 9 percent below average, ranking the 8th lowest in the satellite-measured record, and above the record minimum since October 2020.
• Two notable regions with above-average sea ice concentrations are surrounded by below-average concentrations in the Siberian region.
• Antarctic sea ice extent ranks 3rd lowest relative to October 2016, 4 percent below average.
• In August and September, sea ice concentrations were below average in the Bellingshausen Sea and above average in the northern Amundsen and Ross Seas.

Left: Average Arctic sea ice concentration for October 2022. The thick orange line represents the October climatological sea ice extent for the period 1991–2020. Right: Anomalies in Arctic sea ice concentration for October 2022 compared to the October average for the period 1991–2020. Data source: ERA5. Source: Copernicus Climate Change Service/ECMWF.

Water situation in October 2022:

• October 2022 was drier than average in southern Europe and most of the Caucasus. Elsewhere in Europe, the northwestern Iberian Peninsula, parts of France and Germany, England and Ireland, northwestern Scandinavia, eastern Europe and a large part of central Turkey were wetter than average.
• Beyond Europe, much of central North America, the entire Horn of Africa, large parts of Russia, central Asia and China, and parts of South America were drier than average. Conversely, wetter than average conditions established elsewhere in North America across southern Central Asia. Heavy rains in Australia caused severe flooding in the eastern and southeastern regions.

Anomalies in precipitation, surface air moisture, top 7 cm soil moisture, and surface air temperature for October 2022, relative to October averages for the period 1991–2020. Dark gray shading indicates where soil moisture does not appear due to snow cover or seasonally low precipitation. Data Source: ERA5 Source: Copernicus Climate Change Service/ECMWF

Samantha Burgess, C3S Deputy Director Commented “Europe recorded its warmest October ever – 2 degrees above the 30-year average, following a hot summer. The serious effects of climate change are becoming more apparent today, and ambitious climate action at COP27 is needed to keep temperatures close to the Paris Agreement’s target of 1.5 degrees of emissions reductions”

Includes video content with maps Here.

You can download the weather updates, high resolution graphics and video for October weather changes and previous months Here.

Answers to frequently asked questions about temperature monitoring Here.

Information about the C3S data set and how it is compiled

Temperature and hydrology maps and data from ECMWF Copernicus Climate Change Service ERA5 data.

Sea ice maps and data from a combination of information from ERA5, EUMETSAT OSI SAF Sea Ice Index v2.1, Sea Ice Concentration CDR/ICDR v2 and velocity data provided by OSI SAF upon request.

The regional averages listed have the following longitude/latitude boundaries:

All Earth, 180W-180E, 90S-90N. In total.

Europe, 25W-40E, 34N-72N, mainland only.

On the percentile scale used here, ‘warmest’ is warmest over the entire dataset 1979–2022, ‘warmer than average’ is warmer than the 90th percentile of the monthly or seasonal temperature distribution from 1991–2020; “Above average” means warmer than the 66.6th percentile; “Near average” is between the 33.3rd and 66.6th percentile; “Below average” means cooler than the 33.3rd percentile; “Much cooler than average” means colder than the 10th percentile, and “colder” means the coldest in the 1979-2022 dataset”.

More information is available Here.

National data and impact information

National data and impact information are based on national and regional reports. See the respective month’s temperature and water level for details C3S Climate Bulletin.

C3S followed the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recommendation to use the most recent 30-year period for calculating climate averages, and from January 2021 switched to the 1991–2020 reference period for its C3S Climate Bulletins. Figures and graphics for the new and previous periods (1981-2010) are provided for transparency.

More information is available on the reference period used Here.

About Copernicus and ECMWF

Copernicus is part of the European Union’s space program, funded by the European Union and its flagship Earth observation project. The business operates through six thematic services: atmosphere, ocean, land, climate change, security and emergencies. It provides freely available operational data and services that provide users with reliable and up-to-date information about our planet and its environment. The project is coordinated and managed by the European Commission and implemented in collaboration with Member States, the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), and the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). , EU agencies and Mercator Océan and others.

ECMWF operates two services from the European Union’s Copernicus Earth observation programme: the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) and the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). They also contribute to the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS) implemented by the European Union’s Joint Research Council (JRC). The European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is an independent intergovernmental organization supported by 35 states. It is a 24/7 operational service that produces and disseminates numerical weather forecasts to a research institute and its member countries. These data are fully available to the national meteorological services of the Member States. The supercomputer facility (and associated data archive) at ECMWF is one of the largest in Europe, and member states can use 25 percent of its capacity for their own purposes..

ECMWF has expanded the number of operational locations. In addition to the headquarters in the UK and the computing center in Italy, new offices focusing on activities with the European Union, such as Copernicus, will be located in Bonn, Germany.

Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service Webhttp://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/

Copernicus Climate Change Service Webhttps://climate.copernicus.eu/

More information about Copernicus:www.copernicus.eu

ECMWF website:https://www.ecmwf.int/

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Media communication

Nuria Lopez
Communication | Copernicus Treatises and Press
Office of the Director General
European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
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Twitter: @CopernicusECMWF

Bjorn Mogensen
Contact Oxenstierna
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