The last month of summer in 2026 broke all global temperature records, not only in the history of meteorological observations but also over the preceding thousands of years. The extreme heat affected both land and the world’s oceans, the temperature of which also reached unprecedented highs.
This is reported by Euractiv, citing a recent report from the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Deeper than a century
Copernicus has been monitoring the weather and climate since 1940. However, this does not mean that scientists have no insight into earlier periods. Indeed, meteorologists can analyse data from tree rings, coral skeletons and ice cores. And this data does not paint a favourable picture of the present day.
"People haven’t seen temperatures as high as today’s for at least the last 100,000 years," Samantha Burgess of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which oversees the Copernicus programme, told AFP.
According to Copernicus, the global average temperature in August was 16.96°C. The previous monthly record, set in July 2023, was broken by 0.01°C.
Scientists attribute this to human economic activity. First and foremost, this refers to the burning of fossil fuels – gas, oil and coal. Compared with pre-industrial times, the temperature has already risen by 1.4°C. Despite this, emissions of greenhouse gases, which trap heat in the atmosphere, have continued to rise. In 2025, they set a new record.
"The evidence is irrefutable: it is the mounting cost of humanity’s dependence on fossil fuels and the global climate crisis that this fuels," said Simon Still, the UN’s climate chief, commenting on the Copernicus report.
It won’t get any better from here on
Sea surface temperatures in August continued the record-breaking heat seen in the previous two months. Overall, more than 90 per cent of the excess heat generated by greenhouse gas emissions is absorbed by the oceans and seas. In this way, they protect the land, but this is damaging to aquatic ecosystems.
In the coming months, scientists are cautiously anticipating new records. This is due to the El Niño weather phenomenon, which is only just gaining strength in the Pacific Ocean. As well as causing the waters to warm, it also poses a threat of extreme weather events – ranging from bushfires in Australia to floods in Peru.
So next year, 2027, could be even hotter than 2026.
"Climate change is making every El Niño event hotter, and until we stop burning coal, oil and gas, these record-breaking months will simply continue," said Friederike Otto, a climatologist at Imperial College London.
The effects of the heatwave
Overall, the summer months were the hottest in Europe in the last 23 years. In just one month, from mid-July to mid-August, this led to over 32,000 additional deaths.
The economic losses for the EU are also colossal. EcoPolitic previously reported that these were estimated at €180 billion. They completely offset the projected GDP growth.
You can find out how global warming has already affected Ukraine in this article.
