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The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on behalf of the European Commission with funding from the EU, routinely publishes monthly climate bulletins reporting on the changes observed in global surface air temperature, sea ice cover and hydrological variables. All the reported findings are based on computer-generated analyses using billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world.
May 2023 – temperature highlights:
- The month was the joint second warmest May globally, less than 0.1°C cooler than the warmest May on record.
- Sea surface temperature and marine air temperature averaged over all ice-free seas were the highest on record for May.
- Temperatures on average were close to normal over most of Europe.
- Parts of Canada, Africa and South-East Asia were significantly warmer than normal.
- It was notably cooler than normal over Australia and from North-West India to southern Siberia.
- An El Niño signal continued to emerge over the tropical eastern Pacific.
According to Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of C3S, “May 2023 was the 2nd warmest globally as we are seeing the El Niño signal continuing to emerge in the equatorial Pacific. Temperatures over the ocean are already reaching record levels and our data indicates that the average temperature over all ice-free seas for May 2023 was higher than for any other May.”
May 2023 – hydrological variables highlights:
- In May 2023, it was wetter than average over most of southern Europe and in the west of Iceland; heavy precipitation led to floods in Italy and the western Balkans.
- Drier-than-average conditions were recorded over most of the Iberian Peninsula, over Denmark, the Baltic Countries, southern Scandinavia and much of western Russia.
- Beyond Europe, in May 2023 it was drier than average over large regions of North America, central Russia, in East and southeast Asia, the Horn of Africa, most of southern Africa, Australia and South America.
- Wetter than average regions included south-eastern and south-western North America, south-eastern Africa, southern Brazil, Pakistan and New Zealand.
May 2023 – Sea ice highlights:
- For the third time in 2023, Antarctic sea ice extent reached a record low monthly value for the time of year within the satellite data record, at 17% below average.
- Sea ice concentrations were most below-average in the Weddell, Bellingshausen, and northern Ross Seas while above-average concentrations continued to prevail in the Amundsen Sea.
- Arctic sea ice extent was very close to average and almost identical to the value recorded in May 2022.
- Sea ice concentration anomalies were dominated by above-average concentrations in the Greenland Sea and below-average concentrations in the Barents Sea.
Boreal Spring 2023 – Seasonal highlights:
- In boreal spring 2023, it was drier than average over the Iberian Peninsula, and most of eastern Europe. Conditions were wetter than average over Iceland, Ireland, most of the UK, Italy, most of central and southeastern Europe.
- Beyond Europe, boreal spring was wetter than average in the western and southeastern USA, over parts of the Horn of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and regions of central Asia, northern Australia and western southern Africa. The rest of North America, most of South America as well as much of southern Africa experienced drier-than-average conditions.
