August 2026 Confirmed as Hottest Month on Record

Climate data has been released confirming August 2026 as the hottest month on record after heatwaves and severe drought dominated Western Europe's warmest summer.

The recorded surface air temperature for August 2026 was 1.65°C above the estimated pre-industrial 1850-1900 average, with the period from June to August 2026 the joint-warmest on record globally, on par with 2024.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service, which authored the report with data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), found the extreme conditions had coincided with exceptionally low river flows from the Rhine to the Danube, and had intensified wildfires across Indonesia.

Samantha Burgess, from the ECMWF, said the observations revealed "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," Ms Burgess said.

Earlier this month, a landmark report from the UN warned the world was unlikely to keep global warming below 1.8C, predicting that global temperatures would likely pass 1.5C above pre-industrial levels by 2030.

The Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty signed in 2016, requires countries to take action to avoid dangerous warming by keeping temperature increases well below 2C and as close to 1.5C as possible.

Scientists have repeatedly advised that keeping temperatures at or below the 1.5C target would "significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change".

The Copernicus report authors found that parts of North America, northern Siberia, central Asia, the Maghreb, and much of northern Australia were also drier than average in the same period.

El Niño turbocharges warming

The world's ocean temperatures also hit a record high in August, with scientists predicting the water would continue to get hotter until an El Niño weather pattern reached its peak.

University of Adelaide climate scientist Georgy Falster said the record was not unexpected due to the combination of ongoing global warming and the El Niño event.

"El Niño itself is changing with climate change. So, this El Niño, it's likely to be very large, possibly the biggest one on record," she said.

"And it is possible, although not guaranteed, that the strength of this El Niño is related to climate change."

Dr Falster said it was critical to mark the records as they took place.

"We as a species need to keep reminding ourselves that what is happening is unprecedented," she said.

"So, I think it is actually very important to mark every time another record topples over."

Dr Falster said she was hopeful that the extreme weather spurred governments to act.

"There is absolutely no point at which we should stop trying to reduce the effects of future climate change," she said.

"No matter when we start acting, or increasing our efforts, all of that makes the world a better place in the future."