Copernicus: August 2026 was the hottest month on record, oceans hit unprecedented highs

The EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service has confirmed that August 2026 was the hottest single month ever recorded globally, with ocean temperatures also reaching unprecedented highs as western Europe capped its warmest summer.

How hot was August?

Copernicus reported a global average air temperature of 16.96 degrees Celsius for August 2026, exceeding the previous all-time monthly record set in July 2023 by 0.01 degrees Celsius. Because the difference is so small, Copernicus said it considered the two months joint-highest.

Oceans and the accumulation of heat

Global sea surface temperatures set a new daily high and were equal-hottest for August, extending a three-month streak of record-breaking warmth across the world’s oceans. Copernicus noted that more than 90 percent of excess heat trapped by greenhouse gas emissions has been absorbed by the oceans, with severe costs to marine life, reefs and coastal communities.

Climate drivers and warnings

The Copernicus assessment came with warnings from the United Nations that “until humanity weaned off fossil fuels, the planet would only push deeper into uncharted territory.” The report and accompanying commentary linked human activity primarily the burning of coal, oil and gas to roughly 1.4 degrees Celsius of warming since pre-industrial times and to increased severity and likelihood of extreme weather.

“Humans haven’t seen temperatures as hot as today for, arguably, at least the last 100 000 years,”

Samantha Burgess, of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, told AFP that Copernicus observations go back to 1940 and that paleoclimate evidence allows scientists to place today’s climate against a much longer historical context.

El Niño, records ahead

Copernicus and scientists highlighted the role of a particularly strong El Niño in pushing global temperatures higher. The report said the tropical Pacific is unusually warm as the strongest El Niño in the modern era accumulates strength. Scientists expect records to keep falling as this “super” El Niño approaches peak intensity around December, and said 2027 and maybe even 2026 could become the hottest years ever observed.

“Climate change makes every El Nino hotter, and until we stop burning coal, oil, and gas these record-shattering months will simply keep on coming,”

Friederike Otto, a climate scientist from Imperial College London, warned in response to the Copernicus findings.

Regional impacts and extremes

Copernicus said August marked the end of western Europe’s warmest summer, surpassing the long-standing record set in 2003. The June-to-August season featured severe, back-to-back heatwaves that shut schools, dried up rivers and primed the land for devastating wildfires.

Between mid-July and mid-August, Europe’s EuroMomo monitoring platform estimated more than 32 000 excess deaths. World Weather Attribution researchers concluded that a particularly strong June heatwave would have been “virtually impossible” without the influence of climate change.

Global reach of the heat

Extraordinary heat was reported across the world. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the contiguous United States endured its hottest summer on record. An AFP analysis of Copernicus data found regions home to around 900 million people experienced the hottest July ever observed.

“We’ve had an exceptional summer – not only in Europe, but other parts of the world where records that have existed for close to a century have fallen,”

Samantha Burgess said, adding that the climate will “continue to get more extreme unless we turn off the tap to global emissions.”

Looking ahead

Copernicus observations extend back to 1940, and the service uses that record alongside longer-term evidence such as ice cores, tree rings and coral skeletons to contextualise modern temperature extremes. The agency’s assessment, and the scientific commentary that accompanied it, underline the trajectory of rising temperatures while signalling the potential for further record-breaking months as the current El Niño evolves.