August matched the highest global temperature ever recorded for a calendar month, with average temperatures reaching 1.65C above pre-industrial levels, scientists said.
The month equalled the record set by July 2023 and became the hottest August in the historical record, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
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Western Europe also endured its hottest summer on record, overtaking the previous high recorded in 2003, Copernicus reported.
2026 saw the hottest ever June-August period for 1.3bn people
The latest heatwaves extended an exceptional spell that began in May. Scientists said severe drought had affected the UK, France, Hungary, Romania and Serbia, while the Rhine, Danube and Dnieper were among major rivers recording exceptionally low flows.
August also marked the first return to temperatures above the key 1.5C threshold since November 2025, Copernicus said.
Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, countries committed to keeping long-term global warming “well below” 2C above pre-industrial levels while pursuing efforts to limit the rise to 1.5C. The goal is to reduce the risk of the most damaging climate impacts, including droughts, heatwaves, floods, rising seas and the collapse of wildlife populations.
People use umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun in London last month
Ocean temperatures were similarly extreme. Scientists linked the record heat at sea to continued global warming caused by fossil fuel use, alongside rapidly warming Pacific waters associated with the strong El Nino weather pattern.
Sea surface temperatures outside the polar regions averaged 21.07C in August, the highest ever recorded for the month and equal to the overall monthly record set in March 2024.
‘Warmest August and warmest month ever recorded’
The hottest months recorded
Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at ECMWF, said: “August 2026 was a remarkable month in the global climate record.
“It was both the warmest August and the warmest month ever recorded, with global temperatures reaching 1.65C above pre-industrial levels, marking the return of global temperatures above 1.5C.
“Combined with record global sea surface temperatures and the warmest summer on record for Western Europe, these observations show 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.”
In an interview with RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Dr Burgess said Europe was “maladapted” to the climate it is experiencing now, never mind the more severe extremes expected in the future.
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She said scientists had been presenting governments with evidence of the changing climate for decades, yet worsening extreme weather showed the consequences were becoming harder to ignore.
“The implications of heat on health in particular are enormous and what we’ve seen this summer is that ultimately Europe is maladapted to our existing climate, let alone future climate extremes that are already built into the pipeline,” Dr Burgess said.
Dr Burgess said cities and essential infrastructure must be redesigned and strengthened “to make sure we’re much more resilient to future climate change that’s coming at us rapidly”.
“We’re a couple of months out from COP31 in Turkey and we really need to see much more ambitious climate action, both on the mitigation side to get to net zero as quickly as possible,” she added.
Gareth Redmond-King, head of international programme at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), said the latest data amounted to another “warning siren” ahead of the next UN climate summit, Cop31, which is due to take place in two months.
He said: “World leaders gathering ahead of Cop31 in the coming weeks know the solution: cut greenhouse gas emissions rapidly towards net zero while strengthening resilience to the impacts already locked in.
“The task now is to match the scale of the science with the scale of action, supporting communities already on the front line of climate impacts while accelerating the transition away from coal, oil and gas to bring our climate back into balance.”
People seek relief from high temperatures in Nice, France
‘These numbers should surprise no one’
Prof Friederike Otto, professor of climate science at Imperial College London, said: “I run the risk of sounding like a broken record, but these numbers should surprise no one.
“You don’t need to be a climate scientist to see the evidence of climate change, you just need to look out of your window.
“While El Nino is starting to ramp up the heat, the underlying driver remains our relentless burning of fossil fuels.”
“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,” she said.
Minister for climate transition Katie White said: “Our hottest summer ever is a brutal reminder that we’re not waiting for climate change to arrive in Britain, we’re living in the middle of it.
“With kids too hot to sleep, families worrying about older relatives, farmers watching fields dry out, and firefighters and our armed forces battling wildfires, we’ve all woken up to a reality none of us wants for the people and places we love.
“That makes us more determined to act, with some of the biggest and boldest action in a generation to electrify our economy and tackle climate change with clean energy made in Britain.
“We’re seizing the opportunity to upgrade Britain, backing our best scientists, entrepreneurs and technologies to make us happier, healthier and wealthier.”
