International temperatures are as soon as once more reaching new data as doubtlessly historic El Niño circumstances proceed to unfold throughout the central and japanese equatorial Pacific, in response to a report launched Wednesday.
Final month was the warmest August on file globally, surpassing 2023 and 2024, in response to new information analyzed by the Copernicus Local weather Change Service (C3S). The planet’s common floor air temperature was 62.5 levels Fahrenheit.
Individuals stroll with umbrellas throughout a warmth wave in New York, July 2, 2026.
Spencer Platt/Getty Photographs
The report mentioned that August 2026 was a “outstanding month within the international local weather file” and marks the primary record-breaking month for international temperatures since January 2025.
It was not solely the warmest August on file, however the joint-warmest month for the planet throughout all calendar months, tied with July 2023, in response to the group’s dataset, which begins in 1940.
Final month was additionally the primary month since November 2025 to register greater than 1.5 levels Celsius hotter than the 1850-1900 pre-industrial common, reaching 1.65 levels Celsius.
The 1.5-degree Celsius, 2.7-degree Fahrenheit, warming restrict was established within the 2015 Paris Settlement and is a threshold local weather scientists view as essential for avoiding the worst impacts of human-amplified local weather change.
“Mixed with file international sea floor temperatures and the warmest summer time on file for Western Europe, these observations present how local weather change is driving extremes throughout each the environment and the oceans,” Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Local weather Change Service, mentioned in a press release.
“The impacts of those circumstances are more and more being felt by communities, economies and ecosystems the world over,” she added.
A vacationer walks previous an indication that reads 42 levels Celsius in Palma de Mallorca, June 20, 2026, on the eve of the beginning of the primary official heatwave of this summer time.
Jaime Reina/AFP through Getty Photographs
In the USA, a brand new report from the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) discovered that meteorological summer time, which lasts from June to August, was the warmest summer time on file, surpassing 1936 and 2021.
Report highs in international common temperature typically happen throughout El Niño years, however the phenomenon is not the only motive for the record-breaking heat, local weather scientists say.
Quick-term El Niño temperature spikes happen on high of the long-term international warming development, which is primarily pushed by human-caused greenhouse gasoline emissions.
Final month, international sea floor temperatures reached an all-time high, as El Niño circumstances continued to strengthen throughout the central and japanese equatorial Pacific, and marine heatwaves endured all over the world.
On Aug. 22, the day by day common international sea floor temperature between 60 levels south and 60 levels north reached 69.98 levels Fahrenheit, the best worth on file, in response to Copernicus.
It surpasses the earlier file of 69.96 levels Fahrenheit set in February and March 2024, over the past El Niño occasion. International sea floor temperatures additionally reached a file for August, setting a brand new month-to-month file for the second consecutive month.
“This file is one other clear sign of an ocean underneath rising stress. El Niño is including warmth to the system, however it’s doing so on high of many years of human-driven warming,” Burgess mentioned.
The meteorological summer time in Western Europe introduced exceptionally early, persistent and intense warmth waves throughout the area and ranked because the warmest summer time on file, surpassing 2003.
Members of the Emergency Army Unit (UME) make the most of managed burns to halt the unfold of wildfires within the Madrid border area, July 28, 2026, in Cebreros, Spain.
Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Photographs
The extended sizzling and dry circumstances fueled devastating wildfires all through the summer time months.
Over the summer time season, circumstances had been a lot drier than common in western and central Europe, southern Scandinavia and southeastern Europe, with water ranges in a number of main rivers dropping dramatically and disrupting water provides, irrigation and power manufacturing in a number of international locations.
