September 2023 Marks Record-High Temperatures in Baltic Countries
In September 2023, Lithuania and Estonia experienced the highest temperatures ever recorded in the history of weather observations. This information was announced by the meteorological services of both countries, as reported by LRT.
Specifically, the Lithuanian Hydrometeorological Service (LHMT) reported that the average monthly temperature for September reached 16.5°C, surpassing the previous record by 1.6 degrees, a record that had stood for over 60 years. Representatives of LHMT noted in their announcement, "This September is the warmest in the entire history of observations dating back to 1961."
Previous high temperatures in September were recorded in 1975 and 2020 when the average daily temperature for the month was 14.8-14.9°C.
Additionally, the Estonian meteorological agency also declared September as the warmest in its history of observations. The average monthly temperature in Estonia was 15.6°C, which is 3.4°C higher than the average for the period from 1991 to 2020. The last time September saw such high temperatures was in 1934, with an average temperature of 15.1°C. Time Palyak, a representative of the meteorological service, emphasized that this year's September felt like another summer month in terms of weather conditions.
It is worth recalling that Europe experienced heatwaves during the summer of the same year. The most significant of them was the heatwave named "Cerberus," which brought some of the hottest days ever recorded in Europe. Starting on July 10, 2023, the record-breaking anticyclone Cerberus affected many European countries, with the most severe consequences observed in parts of Southeastern and Southwestern Europe, including Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal.
According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service report, July temperatures were so extreme that the month "significantly broke previous records." Based on climate data, July 2023 was the hottest since 1940 when corresponding observations began. However, scientists note that July temperatures were the warmest in the last 120,000 years, considering climatic information from millennia, obtained through the study of tree rings, coral reefs, and deep-sea deposits.