August was Earth's hottest month, European climate agency finds

The Associated Press

· Posted: Sep 10, 2026 12:43 PM EDT | Last Updated: 7 minutes ago

Earth cooked to its hottest month on record in August, blowing far past a key climate threshold due to the dangerous double whammy of human-caused climate change and a supersized El Niño, according to the European climate service Copernicus. 

August's sizzle also helped push the globe and Canada to swelter through the hottest Northern Hemisphere summer scientists have measured. 

Last month the world averaged 16.96 C, which technically was one-hundredth of a degree Celsius more than the all-time global mark set in July 2023. But because that's also the uncertainty level, it's considered a tie, said Samantha Burgess, strategic climate lead for Copernicus. 

"It is now time to stop acting surprised that our warming planet keeps getting warmer. This is occurring exactly as forecast by scientists literally decades ago," Texas A&M University climate scientist Andrew Dessler said in an email.

"The interesting question is not whether we will keep breaking heat records (we will), but whether we're going to do anything about it or just stand there while the climate train runs us over."

This graphic shows that August 2026 was the hottest month ever recorded globally. (C3S/ECMWF)

Globally, August was 1.65 C above pre-industrial levels, far exceeding  the longer term 1.5 C threshold set by the 2015 Paris climate agreement. The eight hottest months on record have all been from July 2023 on, according to Copernicus data.

"Our climate system is really operating well outside the range we would have expected just a decade ago," Burgess said Wednesday from a United Kingdom that has been beset with heat waves.

WATCH | Millions across Europe facing record temperatures from major heat wave:

"We've transitioned from climate being very abstract and perhaps impacting the Global South or faraway places to climate impacting and disrupting our daily lives with schools closing, hospitals being overwhelmed, roads melting, train lines buckling. And the reality is we will get more of these conditions that we've seen this summer." 

Global monthly ocean temperatures in August tied a March 2024 all-time record for the warmest month recorded, while Aug. 22 set a record for the hottest day recorded in the world's seas, according to Copernicus.  

An extra-hot summer hits

"This summer has really been exceptional. We've seen records that existed for close to 100 years be broken, in the U.S. in particular," Burgess said.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Wednesday announced that for the first time, summer in the lower 48 states was hotter than during the peak of the devastating Dust Bowl in 1936.

June through August of 2026 in the contiguous United States averaged 23.54 C, nearly four-tenths of a degree warmer than the mark set 90 years earlier. Globally, this past summer also tied with 2024 for the hottest on record, according to Copernicus.

That records are regularly getting broken, and that August and not July — which is traditionally warmer — set an all-time record, are signs that human-caused climate change is accelerating, Berkeley Earth climate scientist Zeke Hausfather said.

• Heat dome brings dangerous temperatures. Here's how to stay safe

• Record-breaking heat dome growing to cover nearly the entire U.S.

Fossil fuels, El Niño blamed

Several scientists said while El Niño is a factor, this natural and temporary warming of parts of the Pacific that warps and warms weather globally is nowhere as big a cause as the heat-trapping gases emitted as humans burn coal, oil and natural gas. 

"While El Niño is starting to ramp up the heat, the underlying driver remains our relentless burning of fossil fuels. Climate change makes every El Niño hotter, and until we stop burning coal, oil, and gas, these record-shattering months will simply keep on coming," said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London.

Burgess said El Niño generally adds only one- or two-tenths of a degree Celsius to the global temperature with the overwhelming rest of the heat coming from the burning of fossil fuels. 

WATCH | 1,000 additional deaths amid record-breaking heat wave:

This El Niño is forecast, however, to break records for strength in the coming months. And as temperatures continue to rise, heat waves, storms, floods and wildfires will get more frequent and more dangerous, said Texas Tech climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe. 

According to Hausfather, "it is increasingly likely that 2026 ends up beating 2024 as the warmest year on record, and almost certain that 2027 beats both, potentially reaching as high as 1.8 C above pre-industrial levels on the back of an unprecedentedly-strong El Niño event."

Some days may hit an even higher climate threshold: 2 C above mid-1800s, Burgess said.

• Canadians should prepare for a 5 C hotter future, report warns

"Until humanity stops burning colossal amounts of coal, oil and gas, the pollution this causes will keep baking our planet, and extreme heat will keep smashing all-time records, killing millions and costing trillions, hitting transport and health systems, and pushing up prices for household basics like food," United Nations climate chief Simon Stiell said.

"This is the spiralling price of humanity's fossil fuel addiction, and the global climate crisis it is fuelling."