Record-breaking heat extended beyond land, with exceptionally warm oceans, severe drought and wildfires underscoring the accelerating impacts of climate change.
August 2026 was the world’s joint hottest month on record, tied with July 2023, with the global average air temperature reaching 1.65°C above the pre-industrial reference level, according to data published Thursday by the European climate observatory Copernicus.
The global average air temperature last month reached 16.96°C, marking the first month since November 2025 to exceed 1.5°C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial reference period, the threshold set by the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Extra-polar oceans also recorded their highest average temperature for August, reaching 21.07°C and surpassing the previous record set in 2023, Copernicus said.
“August 2026 was a remarkable month in the global climate record. It was both the warmest August and the warmest month ever recorded,” declared Samantha Burgess, Strategic Lead for Climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).
“These observations show how climate change is driving extremes across both the atmosphere and the oceans. The impacts of these conditions are increasingly being felt by communities, economies and ecosystems across the world,” she added.
Hottest summer ever in Western Europe
The figures also marked the end of the hottest summer ever recorded in Western Europe, where prolonged, intense and early heatwaves began as early as May.
The summer of 2026 broke the previous record set in 2003 for the region.
In August, the average temperature over European land reached 20.26°C, making it the continent’s fourth-warmest August on record, according to Copernicus.
Europe also experienced widespread drought, with exceptionally low water levels recorded in rivers including the Rhine, Danube, Vistula, Rhône and Po. Drier-than-average conditions also contributed to numerous wildfires in several regions across the continent.
“The evidence is irrefutable: this is the spiralling price of humanity’s fossil fuel addiction, and the global climate crisis it is fuelling,” declared Simon Stiell, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary.
“Until humanity stops burning colossal amounts of coal, oil and gas, the pollution this causes will keep baking our planet, and extreme heat will keep smashing all-time records,” Stiell added.
For the UN Climate Change Executive Secretary, preventing new temperature records from being set requires “a faster shift to clean energy.”
