BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - August 2026 was the joint warmest month ever recorded, tied with July 2023, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Last month also saw the average sea surface temperature over the extra-polar ocean reaching a record high. The European climate monitoring agency attributes this to global heating from burning fossil fuels and rapidly increasing sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific associated with strong El Niño conditions.
With a global average surface air temperature 1.65°C higher than the estimated pre-industrial baseline, this August was the first month to exceed 1.5°C since November 2025. The month saw the joint highest monthly average SST ever recorded across the extra-polar ocean, tied with March 2024, and the highest daily global SST over the extra-polar ocean ever recorded, at 21.11ºC.
Meanwhile, record high SSTs were seen across the tropical Pacific, an area where a potentially extreme El Niño event continues to intensify. The impacts of this event are already being felt over land, with conditions favoring the intensification of seasonal wildfires across Indonesia, as reported by the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service.
Last month marked the end of western Europe's warmest summer on record, surpassing the previous record set in 2003. The region also saw further heatwaves in August, continuing an exceptional run of extreme heat that began in May. Much of the region and large parts of central and eastern Europe also saw widespread dryness in August, in some cases persisting since May, with severe drought conditions reported in France, the UK, Hungary, Romania and Serbia.
Across the dry regions, major European river flows were exceptionally low, including the Rhine, Danube, Southern Bug and Dnieper experiencing exceptionally low flows.
'August 2026 was a remarkable month in the global climate record. It was both the warmest August and the warmest month ever recorded, with global temperatures reaching 1.65°C above pre-industrial levels, marking the return of global temperatures above 1.5°C,' said Samantha Burgess, Strategic Lead for Climate at ECMWF. 'Combined with record global sea surface temperatures and the warmest summer on record for Western Europe, 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.'
In contrast to the scorching heat experienced in other parts of Europe, western Iberia, southern Greece, southern Türkey and Cyprus, as well as northeastern Europe, were wetter than average, the Copernicus Climate Change Service reports.
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