Last month was the joint-hottest month ever recorded on Earth. The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said the global average surface air temperature in August 2026 was 16.96°C, matching July 2023 for the record.
The key figures
- Global temperature: 16.96°C, 1.65°C above the 1850–1900 pre-industrial average.
- The 1.5°C line: it was the first month since November 2025 to exceed the 1.5°C limit set in the Paris Agreement.
- Oceans: sea-surface temperatures outside the polar regions averaged 21.07°C, the highest for any August on record.
- Europe: the continent’s land surface averaged 20.26°C, its fourth-warmest August.
Europe’s hottest summer in the west
Western Europe had its hottest summer on record, beating 2003, with heatwaves arriving as early as May. Drought lowered major rivers including the Rhine, Danube, Rhône and Po, disrupting shipping, and wildfires broke out in several regions.
Samantha Burgess of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which runs Copernicus, called August 2026 “a remarkable month in the global climate record.”
Why a single month matters
One month above 1.5°C does not mean the Paris goal has been permanently breached; that threshold refers to warming averaged over about two decades. But each record month adds to the evidence that the world is approaching it faster than expected, and that heat extremes are becoming more frequent and intense.
What comes next
Attention now turns to November’s COP31 climate summit in Antalya, Türkiye, where governments are expected to present tougher national plans. UN climate chief Simon Stiell used the Copernicus figures to call for a faster shift to clean energy. For people in South Asia, Africa and southern Europe, the practical message is that heat preparedness, from early-warning systems to shaded public spaces, is becoming as important as cutting emissions.