Global temperatures have reached new record highs as potentially historic El Niño conditions continue to unfold, according to a report from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).
Last month, August 2026, was the warmest August on record globally, surpassing previous records and marking the first record-breaking month for global temperatures since January 2025. The planet's average surface air temperature was recorded at 62.5 degrees Fahrenheit. This August also tied with July 2023 as the joint-warmest month across all calendar months in the C3S dataset, which begins in 1940.
Furthermore, August 2026 was the first month since November 2025 to register more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average, reaching 1.65 degrees Celsius. This 1.5-degree Celsius threshold is a critical benchmark set by the 2015 Paris Agreement to avoid the most severe impacts of climate change.
Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, stated that these observations, combined with record global sea surface temperatures and the warmest summer on record for Western Europe, illustrate how climate change is intensifying extremes in both the atmosphere and oceans. She added that the impacts of these conditions are increasingly affecting communities, economies, and ecosystems worldwide.
In the United States, a separate report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) confirmed that meteorological summer (June to August) was the warmest on record, exceeding the previous records set in 1936 and 2021.
While record global average temperatures often coincide with El Niño years, climate scientists emphasize that the phenomenon is not the sole cause. The short-term temperature spikes associated with El Niño occur against the backdrop of a long-term global warming trend, primarily driven by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.
Global sea surface temperatures also reached an all-time high last month, with El Niño conditions intensifying in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific and marine heatwaves persisting globally. Between 60 degrees south and 60 degrees north, the daily average global sea surface temperature hit 69.98 degrees Fahrenheit on August 22, the highest value on record according to Copernicus. This surpasses the previous record set in February and March 2024 during the last El Niño event.
Burgess noted that this record is a clear indicator of an ocean under considerable stress, with El Niño exacerbating the warming already driven by decades of human activity.
Western Europe experienced exceptionally early, persistent, and intense heatwaves throughout its summer, making it the warmest summer on record and surpassing the previous record from 2003. These prolonged hot and dry conditions fueled devastating wildfires during the summer months. Water levels in several major rivers dropped dramatically, disrupting water supplies, irrigation, and energy production across parts of western and central Europe, southern Scandinavia, and southeastern Europe, which experienced drier-than-average conditions.