Copernicus: August 2026 to be the Hottest Month Ever Recorded Worldwide

The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service announced that August 2026 was the hottest month on record globally, and that summer in Western Europe was the warmest since records began.

Copernicus reported that the global average air temperature in August reached 16.96°C, surpassing the previous record set in July 2023 by just 0.01°C, and that Western Europe experienced “the hottest summer ever recorded.”

Samantha Burgess, Strategic Climate Officer at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), which operates the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said in the service’s report on Thursday: “August 2026 was an exceptional month in the history of global climate.”

Speaking to Agence France-Presse, Burgess added: “Humans have likely not experienced such high temperatures for at least 100,000 years.”

From New York to Tokyo, via Rome and New Delhi, the summer of 2026 was marked by extreme heat across the Northern Hemisphere, disrupting daily life for bicycle delivery workers, construction site laborers, beachgoers, and even those most vulnerable to heat risks within their homes.

July 2023 ranked second with an average temperature of 16.95°C. The service told AFP that it considers the two months “tied” given the negligible difference between them.

Copernicus stated that the June–August period was also the hottest on record globally, tied with 2024, following the US National Weather Service’s announcement that the United States had experienced its hottest summer since records began more than 130 years ago.

Other climate data sources allow scientists to strengthen their conclusions using evidence dating back much further. According to them, the current period is likely the hottest Earth has experienced in the past 125,000 years.

Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said in a statement to AFP on Thursday: “As long as humanity continues to burn vast quantities of coal, oil, and gas, the resulting pollution will continue to heat our planet, and extreme heatwaves will keep breaking absolute records.”

This year’s El Niño climate phenomenon is also periodically raising ocean temperatures, leading to droughts and floods. Scientists fear that this phenomenon could exacerbate global warming and intensify extreme weather events.

Copernicus also reported that the global average temperature in August was 1.65°C higher than pre-industrial levels, exceeding the most ambitious target set by the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement for the first time since November 2025. However, the 1.5°C threshold is measured as an average over multiple years.

During this sweltering summer, Western Europe experienced “a series of early, persistent, and exceptionally severe heatwaves,” recording its hottest summer in history, surpassing that of 2003, according to Copernicus.

Across the continent, the average air temperature in August reached 20.26°C, which is 1.10°C above pre-industrial levels, making it the third hottest summer on record.

Heat waves have also significantly impacted the oceans, according to Copernicus, with the monthly average sea surface temperature, excluding polar regions, reaching record highs and registering levels similar to those observed in March 2024.