December 7, 2021 – 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.

Surface air temperature anomaly for November 2021 relative to the November average for the period 1991-2020. Data source: ERA5. Credit: Copernicus Climate Change Service/ECMWF.
Surface air temperature anomaly for November 2021 relative to the November average for the period 1991-2020. Data source: ERA5. Credit: Copernicus Climate Change Service/ECMWF.

November and boreal Autumn (September-November) 2021 surface air temperature:

  • Globally, November 2021 is estimated to be the fifth warmest November on record
  • The November 2021 global average temperature was almost 0.2ºC cooler than the record-breaking November of 2020, but very close to temperatures of the other warmer Novembers: 2015, 2016 and 2019
  • Temperature over Europe was close overall to its 1991-2020 average, for autumn as a whole as well as November, but Ireland, Great Britain and southern Scandinavia experienced record or near-record autumn warmth
  • Regions where temperatures were well above average for both November and the season include most of North America, especially north-eastern Canada, a large part of Siberia and most of Africa and the Middle East
  • The month and season were cooler than average over the far east of Russia and Alaska, and much of central Asia and Australia

Maps and quoted data values for temperature are from ECMWF Copernicus Climate Change Service’s ERA5 dataset. Area averages for temperature over the European region are for land only with the following longitude/latitude bounds: 25W-40E, 34N-72N.

C3S has followed the recommendation of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) to use the most recent 30-year period for calculating climatological averages and changed to the reference period of 1991-2020 for its C3S Climate Bulletins covering January 2021 onward. Figures and graphics for both the new and previous period (1981-2010) are provided for transparency.

More information about climate variables in November and climate updates of previous months as well as high-resolution graphics and the video can be downloaded here:

https://climate.copernicus.eu/monthly-climate-bulletins

More information about the C3S data set and how it is compiled can be found here:

https://climate.copernicus.eu/climate-bulletin-about-data-and-analysis

More information on the switch of the reference period, can be found here:

https://climate.copernicus.eu/new-decade-reference-period-change-climate-data

Answers to frequently asked questions regarding temperature monitoring can be found here:

https://climate.copernicus.eu/temperature-qas

Notes:

Copernicus is a component of the European Union’s space programme, with funding by the EU, and is its flagship Earth observation programme, which operates through six thematic services: Atmosphere, Marine, Land, Climate Change, Security and Emergency. It delivers freely accessible operational data and services providing users with reliable and up-to-date information related to our planet and its environment. The programme is coordinated and managed by the European Commission and implemented in partnership with the Member States, the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), EU Agencies and Mercator Océan, amongst others.

ECMWF operates two services from the EU’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), which is implemented by the EU Joint Research Council (JRC). The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is an independent intergovernmental organisation supported by 34 states. It is both a research institute and a 24/7 operational service, producing and disseminating numerical weather predictions to its Member States. This data is fully available to the national meteorological services in the Member States. The supercomputer facility (and associated data archive) at ECMWF is one of the largest of its type in Europe and Member States can use 25% of its capacity for their own purposes.

ECMWF has expanded its location across its Member States for some activities. In addition to an HQ in the UK and Computing Centre in Italy, new offices with a focus on activities conducted in partnership with the EU, such as Copernicus, are in Bonn, Germany as of Summer 2021.


The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service website can be found at http://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/

The Copernicus Climate Change Service website can be found at https://climate.copernicus.eu/

More information on Copernicus: www.copernicus.eu

The ECMWF website can be found at https://www.ecmwf.int/