August 2026 was the hottest month ever recorded on the planet, bringing to a close a summer marked by a succession of temperature records. With El Niño strengthening and the wider warming trend continuing, further records are considered likely well into next year.
Figures published by Copernicus, the European Union’s climate agency, indicate that August tied with July 2023 as Earth’s hottest month on record. July is typically the warmest month of the year, and this July equalled July 2024 as the second-hottest July ever measured, while June 2026 ranked as the second-hottest June on record. Separately, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared this the hottest summer on record for the United States, surpassing a previous mark set during the Dust Bowl era.
The extended heat is regarded as a clear signal of how the burning of fossil fuels is pushing temperatures higher across the globe while producing more intense and longer-lasting heatwaves.
Record Temperatures Across Land and Ocean
The global average temperature for August stood at 1.65 degrees Celsius (3 degrees Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial average, according to Copernicus. Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, described August 2026 as “a remarkable month in the global climate record”, noting that it combined with record global sea surface temperatures and the warmest summer on record for Western Europe. She said these observations demonstrate how climate change is driving extremes across both the atmosphere and the oceans, with impacts increasingly felt by communities, economies and ecosystems worldwide.
The consequences were felt sharply at a local level. Researchers estimate that as many as 35,000 people died during heatwaves in Germany, France and Spain this summer. Record-breaking fires spread across parts of Europe, producing the first documented fire cloud in France and threatening a key NASA observatory in Spain. In North America, wildfires in Canada and the northern United States filled areas across the Northeast with smoke.
El Niño Points to an Even Hotter 2027
While rising background temperatures reflect long-term warming, the El Niño affecting the eastern Pacific Ocean has added further heat. El Niño events usually coincide with a temporary rise in global temperatures of between 0.1 and 0.2 degrees Celsius. This year’s event is forecast to reach record strength and to disrupt weather patterns around the world, though its full effect on global temperature is not expected until next year, meaning the coming summer could prove even hotter than the one just experienced.
Climate scientists have warned that long-term average warming must be kept from breaching 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid the worst effects of climate change. A single month above that threshold does not constitute a permanent breach, but signals that the world is edging closer to the benchmark. A UN report published earlier this month warned that the world is likely to cross the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold within a few years, and stated that slowing and eventually reversing the rise in global temperatures requires an end to fossil fuel use and lower carbon emissions.
