August 2026 ties as hottest month ever

August 2026 was the joint-hottest month ever recorded worldwide. Global temperatures reached 1.65°C above preindustrial levels, the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service reported.

The month tied with July 2023 for the record. Sea surface temperatures also hit their highest August levels in the observational record.

These extremes arrived before the emerging El Niño weather system has fully developed. The naturally recurring phenomenon involves Pacific wind changes that raise ocean temperatures and transfer vast heat to the atmosphere, triggering global floods, droughts, and heatwaves.

A Boost El Niño Looms

This year's El Niño is forecast to reach peak strength towards the end of 2026. It is predicted to be potentially the most intense on record because the climate crisis is boost it.

Friederike Otto, a climate science professor at Imperial College London, stated the primary cause. "While El Niño is starting to ramp up the heat, the underlying driver remains our relentless burning of fossil fuels," she said. Otto warned that until coal, oil, and gas use ends, such record-shattering months will continue.

Global Impacts and Economic Costs

The aftermath of August's heat is still unfolding globally. It includes devastating wildfires, damaged harvests, heatwave deaths, and disruptions to transport, business, and public services. Food price inflation is likely to rise further as smaller harvests affect markets.

Simon Stiell, the UN climate chief, said the summer's economic and social damage is still being counted. "Extreme heat has been killing millions and costing trillions, hitting transport and health systems, and pushing up prices for household basics like food," he stated. Stiell called it the spiralling price of humanity's fossil fuel addiction. He urged governments to accelerate the shift to clean energy, protect forests and oceans, and build climate resilience.

The 1.5°C Threshold and Tipping Points

Although temperatures exceeded the 1.5°C limit set in the Paris Agreement, a breach would require such highs to persist for several years. The UN conceded this month's "overshoot," noting large-scale carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere would be needed to remedy it.

Copernicus data confirmed specific regional dryness patterns over the summer.

The further temperatures rise above 1.5°C, the greater the risk of hitting planetary tipping points. These could push temperatures much higher and irreversibly break down key climate stabilizers like the Arctic ice cap and the Amazon rainforest.

Ruth Fuller, WWF UK's chief climate adviser, noted the increased risk. "This year has seen records broken left, right and centre, increasing the risk that natural systems will irreversibly change once they are pushed past tipping points," she said.

Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, summarized the findings. August 2026 was both the warmest August and the warmest month ever recorded. Combined with record sea surface temperatures and Europe's warmest summer, she said, these observations show how climate change is driving extremes across the atmosphere and oceans. The impacts are increasingly felt by communities, economies, and ecosystems worldwide.