Copernicus reported August 2026 joint-hottest month on record

August Ties Record As Heat Tops 1.5 C

The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service said Thursday that August was the joint-hottest month ever recorded, with global average surface air temperature reaching 16.96 degrees Celsius.

August tied July 2023 as the warmest month on record in the Copernicus global data set, the service reported on Thursday. The global average air temperature was 1.65 degrees Celsius above the estimated pre-industrial average recorded from 1850 to 1900, scientists said.

Copernicus said August was the first month since November 2025 in which the world's average surface air temperature again exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Samantha Burgess, strategic lead at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, called August 2026 a remarkable month in climate history. She said global temperatures reached 1.65 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, marking the return of temperatures above 1.5 degrees again.

The global average surface air temperature last month was 0.85 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average, according to the new Copernicus climate service data released Thursday.

Record Ocean Heat Fuels Global Extreme Weather

The world's oceans outside polar regions recorded their joint-highest sea surface temperature for any month last month, averaging 21.07 degrees Celsius. That surpassed the previous record of 20.98 degrees Celsius set in 2023 and tied March 2024 for any calendar month.

Extreme weather and climate disasters raged worldwide last month, with scientists linking climate change to landslides and flash floods that killed hundreds in Nepal and China's Tibet region.

Wildfires surged from Indonesia to Greece and Belgium, while severe drought struck Hungary, Romania, France, the United Kingdom and Serbia. In Western Europe, the hottest summer on record brought unusually low river flows and soil moisture, hurting farmers after heatwaves.

The tropical Pacific recorded exceptionally high sea surface temperatures as El Nino conditions strengthened, and forecasters warned the pattern could become one of the strongest on record.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said El Nino is being supersized before our eyes, warning the planet is in uncharted waters as global temperatures keep climbing rapidly.

Long-Term Warming Puts Paris Target Out Of Reach

The world has not technically breached the Paris Agreement's 1.5 degrees Celsius target because that threshold refers to a long-term average over decades, not a monthly peak.

Current long-term warming is about 1.4 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and the United Nations said last week that sticking to the 1.5-degree goal is no longer possible.

The UN urged governments to cut carbon dioxide emissions faster to limit overshooting the target, warning that rising risks demand action. Copernicus said its findings rely on computer-generated analyses incorporating billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations worldwide.

The data used for the global average monthly air temperature dates back to 1940, with some earlier records available, according to the official Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Globally, this combined summer tied 2024 as the hottest on record, while Western Europe experienced its hottest summer ever measured. The Copernicus data also showed record sea surface temperatures along the Atlantic coast and in the western Mediterranean during August.