September was the world's hottest on record, EU climate change service says

FILE PHOTO: A woman walks among fountains on a square in central city during a hot summer day in Brussels, Belgium September 16, 2020. REUTERS/Yves Herman

LONDON (Reuters) - Last month was the world's hottest September on record, with unusually high temperatures recorded off Siberia, in the Middle East, and in parts of South America and Australia, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service said on Wednesday.

Extending a long-term warming trend caused by emissions of heat-trapping gases, high temperatures this year have played a major role in disasters from fires in California and the Arctic to floods in Asia, scientists say.