August was joint hottest month on record, says European climate agency
August 2026's climate data shows the month tied with July 2023 as the joint-hottest month ever recorded globally, according to the EU's Copernicus climate service. The record, driven by human-caused climate change combined with a strengthening El Niño, matters because it pushed monthly temperatures past the critical 1.5C warming threshold and capped a summer that saw western Europe and the UK experience their hottest conditions on record, with scientists warning of real human and economic costs.
Global temperatures in August were 1.65C above pre-industrial levels, and while a single month breaching 1.5C does not mean the limit has been permanently crossed, it signals a worrying trend. The UK recorded its hottest summer since 1884, an outcome the Met Office says was made around 130 times more likely by climate change, while researchers noted the heat disrupted schools and hospitals, damaged food production and fuelled fires and drought, contributing to tens of thousands of deaths across Europe. Experts including UN climate chief Simon Stiell and Imperial College London's Dr Clair Barnes said the records reflect humanity's continued reliance on fossil fuels, warning that El Niño's strongest effects are still to come over the next year.
- August tied July 2023 as hottest month on record globally
- Global temperatures hit 1.65C above pre-industrial levels
- UK and Europe endured record-breaking, deadly summer heat
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August 2026 tied with July 2023 for the hottest month ever measured worldwide, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, the EU body that tracks global temperatures using satellite and other data. Scientists attribute the record to long-term warming caused by human activity, particularly the burning of fossil fuels, combined with El Niño, a natural weather pattern that periodically warms the Pacific Ocean and pushes global temperatures higher still.
The finding matters because it means global temperatures briefly passed 1.5C above levels recorded before industrialisation, a figure widely used as a marker of dangerous climate change, though a single month above this threshold does not mean it has been crossed permanently. The same summer saw the UK and western Europe register their hottest conditions on record, with knock-on effects including strain on schools and hospitals, disruption to farming, and an increase in fires, drought and heat-related deaths.
Key figures cited in coverage of this issue include Copernicus, the EU's climate monitoring service, the UK's Met Office, which studies weather and climate, and individual scientists such as Simon Stiell, the United Nations' climate chief, and Dr Clair Barnes of Imperial College London, who researches how climate change influences extreme weather events.