BRUSSELS, 10th September, 2026 (WAM) -- August 2026 was the joint-warmest month ever recorded globally, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).
The global-average surface air temperature in August was 16.96°C, making it the warmest August globally and the joint-warmest month ever recorded across all calendar months, on par with July 2023.
The global-average temperature in August was 1.65°C above the estimated pre-industrial 1850-1900 average, marking the first month above 1.5°C since November 2025.
Although a single month above the 1.5°C threshold does not mean the Paris Agreement temperature goal has been breached, the figure reflects the continuing global warming trend.
Samantha Burgess, Strategic Lead for Climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), said the observations show how climate change is driving extremes across both the atmosphere and the oceans, with the impacts increasingly being felt by communities, economies and ecosystems across the world.
Copernicus said record global sea surface temperatures were driven by global heating from burning fossil fuels and rapidly increasing sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific associated with strong El Niño conditions.
In Belgium, summer 2026 entered the record books as the hottest on record, with an average temperature of 20.3°C, surpassing the previous record of 19.9°C set in 2018.