Climate, Copernicus: in 2026 the second warmest September on record

September 2026 was the second warmest September on record after 2023 and the second consecutive month in 2026 in which global temperatures exceeded pre-industrial levels by 1.5 degrees. This was announced by Copernicus, the European Union's weather service. September 2026 was 1.63 degrees higher than the estimated pre-industrial period 1850-1900 average. It is the first time since November 2025 that two consecutive months have recorded values ​​1.5 degrees higher. Around Antarctica, sea ice extent has reached its third record low for annual winter maximum. The global average surface air temperature in September 2026 was 16.27 degrees, which is 0.82 degrees above the 1991-2020 average. In Europe, September was the third warmest on record, with an average temperature on land of 16.26 degrees, 1.54 degrees higher than the 1991-2020 average. The situation was even more extreme in Western Europe, where the month equaled the record of September 2023, with an anomaly of 2.51 degrees.

Sea temperatures

Particularly high sea temperatures were observed in large areas of the tropical Pacific, but also along the European Atlantic coast and in the western Mediterranean, where monthly records were reached. Sea temperatures - excluding the polar areas - reached 21.05°C globally, reaching the highest value ever recorded for this month and surpassing the previous record of September 2023 (20.92°C). The sea surface temperature in the "Niño 3.4 region", a reference area in the Pacific, reached an all-time record of 29.70°C in September. This value exceeds the peaks recorded during previous episodes of strong El Niño (1982/1983, 1997/1998 and 2015/2016), confirming, according to experts, "the exceptional intensity of the current El Niño". "We are experiencing a new series of months with temperatures above 1.5°C and, with an El Niño phenomenon still intensifying, it is likely that this trend will continue until 2027", said the director of Copernicus, Carlo Buontempo, for whom "overcoming the long-term limit of the Paris Agreement is only a question of time. How much we will exceed this threshold, and for how long, still depends on us". Experts have warned that El Niño is likely to push global temperatures to a new record in 2027.

See also

Summer 2026 the hottest ever in Western Europe: the data