Newsletter Issue 36 (October 2023)

The weather of September 2023 – A September with Super Typhoon Saola and record-breaking rainstorm

In terms of extreme weather, Sep 2023 was an eventful month in Hong Kong with the ferocious strike by Super Typhoon Saola on 1 – 2 Sep and the phenomenal rainstorm on 7 – 8 Sep. Despite the stormy weather in the first part of the month, there was a long spell of sunny and very hot weather with 10 consecutive very hot days from 21 to 30 Sep, the longest record of consecutive very hot days for Sep.

September smashes monthly temperature record

Earth just had the hottest Sep on record – and by a record-breaking margin, according to the leading international datasets which are used by the WMO for its State of the Global Climate monitoring. This continues an extended streak of extraordinary land and sea-surface temperatures and is an ominous signal about the speed with which greenhouse gases are changing our climate. The year 2023 is now on track to be the warmest year on record.

Topping the charts: September 2023 was Earth’s warmest September in 174-year record

Last month marked another month of record-breaking temperatures throughout the globe, with Sep 2023 ranking as the warmest Sep in NOAA’s 174-year global climate record. “Sep 2023 was the fourth month in a row of record-warm global temperatures,” said NOAA Chief Scientist. “Not only was it the warmest Sep on record, it was far and away the most atypically warm month of any in NOAA’s 174 years of climate keeping.”

Antarctic sea ice reaches lowest winter extent on record

Antarctic sea ice has reached its maximum extent after the cold dark winter months. According to the preliminary data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center, the maximum extent remained below 17 million square kilometers for the first time in the satellite record (1979 onwards). This is a full million square kilometers (386,000 square miles) below the previous record low in 2022 – more than the size of Egypt.

The climate crisis is coming for your hoppy beer

Hops in major beer-producing European countries like Germany, Czech Republic and Slovenia are ripening earlier and producing less since 1994, scientists found. And, perhaps most alarmingly for the IPA lovers of the world, they are starting to lose their critical bitter component. It’s going to get worse, researchers say. Hop yields could decline by as much as 18% by 2050, and their alpha acid content – which makes beer bitter – could decrease by up to 31% due to hotter and drier conditions.

蘇拉、海葵來襲時，這台海上風電機組卻功率拉滿——向颱風“借力”實現綠電增效

由於台灣海峽‘狹管效應’的影響，福建是全國海上風能資源最豐富的地區。受“蘇拉”、“海葵”共同影響，福建沿海狂風不止，三峽集團福建區域海上風電場9月1日最大風速達23.56米/秒，安裝在該風電場的全球首台16兆瓦超大容量海上風電機組不僅沒有“宕機”，反而充分利用颱風，實現24小時滿功率運行，單日發電量達38.41萬千瓦時，刷新世界紀錄。

WMO announces calendar competition winners

WMO has announced the winners of the 2024 WMO calendar competition, which showcases the theme of climate action. The WMO jury consisted of communications experts, photographers, meteorologists and scientists). Winning photographs were selected based on a combination of technical and artistic merit, meteorological interest, social media popularity and relevance to the World Meteorological Day 2024 theme of At the frontline of climate action.

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