"Globally, September 2020 was 0.05 ° C above September 2019, so far the hottest on record," says the European Copernicus service on climate change.

In particular, the heat was higher than normal over the Arctic Ocean.

September 2020 was the hottest September on record in the world, according to the European climate change service Copernicus, which hints at the possibility that 2020 dethrones 2016 as the hottest year.

The twelve-month period from October 2019 to September 2020 is 1.28 ° C above pre-industrial temperatures.

While the past five years have been the hottest on record, this figure puts the planet dangerously close to the ceiling set by the Paris Agreement.

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Temperatures were particularly high ... in Siberia

The pact, concluded in 2015 by nearly 200 states which have committed to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, aims to contain global warming below 1.5 ° C, or at worst 2 ° C, to limit the devastating impacts storms, droughts and other heat waves already at work.

But while the planet has already warmed by more than 1 ° C, it is still gaining an average of 0.2 ° C per decade since the end of the 1970s, insists Copernicus in its monthly climate report.

And 2020 is unlikely to reverse the trend, with the hottest months of January, May and June already.

"Globally, September 2020 was 0.05 ° C above September 2019, so far the hottest on record," said the European service.

That is 0.63 ° C above the average for the period 1981-2020.

Temperatures were particularly high in Siberia, continuing a heat wave that began in the spring that led to spectacular fires.

"There are three months left during which anything can happen"

North America also experienced a particularly hot September, with 49 ° C recorded earlier this month in Los Angeles County, in a California ravaged by fires.

Beyond the month of September alone, data from European satellites shows that the period from January to September 2020 is warmer than the same period in 2019 - the second warmest year.

"There are three months left during which anything can happen," Freja Vamborg, a Copernicus scientist, told AFP, noting that the agency was not making "predictions for global temperatures".