August was world's joint-hottest month on record, scientists say
Copernicus said record sea surface temperatures and a strong El Nino helped drive the hottest August on record, with global air temperatures 1.65 C above pre-industrial levels.
- Earth cooked to its hottest month on record in August, according to European climate service Copernicus, with global temperatures reaching 1.65 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and exceeding the 1.5 degrees Celsius Paris climate agreement threshold.
- While El Niño contributed to the heat, scientists emphasized fossil fuel emissions as the overwhelming driver, with Samantha Burgess, strategic climate lead for Copernicus, noting El Niño adds only one or two tenths of a degree Celsius compared to heat-trapping gases from burning coal, oil and gas.
- The Northern Hemisphere experienced its hottest summer on record, with U.S. summer temperatures averaging 23.54 degrees Celsius, while the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced summer in the Lower 48 states was hotter than the peak of the devastating Dust Bowl in 1936.
- Samantha Burgess warned climate impacts have shifted from abstract concerns to directly disrupting daily lives through school closures, hospital overwhelm and infrastructure failure, stating "the reality is we will get more of these conditions that we've seen this summer."
- Climate scientist Zeke Hausfather, Berkeley Earth, projects 2026 will likely beat 2024 as the warmest year on record, with 2027 potentially reaching 1.8 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels as El Niño strengthens in coming months.
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86 Articles
The EU's climate service Copernicus notes in a new report that the global average temperature for August was the highest ever recorded. The surface waters of the world's oceans also reached new record levels.
A higher global monthly average temperature has never been recorded than last month, according to recent calculations.
Copernicus: August was the world’s joint hottest month on record, pushing global temperatures back above 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels
August 2026 was the joint warmest month ever recorded, tied with July 2023. Last month also saw the average sea surface temperature (SST) over the extra-polar ocean reach a record high, due to global heating from burning fossil fuels and rapidly increasing SSTs in the equatorial Pacific associated with strong El Niño conditions – as reported by the Copernicus Climate Change Service […]
Climate Change: Global heat records have been broken again. The month of August was never as warm as this… since records began.
While August was level with global heat record, Western Europe can look back on its hottest summer ever
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