August Ties Hottest Month On Record As Global Heat Smashes Climate Threshold

Earth endured its hottest August on record, with global temperatures soaring well beyond the key 1.5°C climate threshold, driven primarily by human-caused climate change and intensified by a powerful El Niño, according to the European climate service Copernicus.

August’s extreme heat also contributed to the hottest Northern Hemisphere summer ever recorded, with both global and US temperatures reaching unprecedented levels.

The global average temperature in August was 16.96°C (62.53°F), technically 0.01°C higher than the previous record set in July 2023. However, because the difference falls within the margin of uncertainty, Copernicus considers the two months effectively tied, said Samantha Burgess, the agency’s strategic climate lead.

August was approximately 1.65°C above pre-industrial levels, significantly exceeding the 1.5°C threshold at the heart of the 2015 Paris climate agreement. According to Copernicus data, the eight hottest months ever recorded have all occurred since July 2023.

“Our climate system is really operating well outside the range we would have expected just a decade ago,” Burgess said, warning that extreme heat is increasingly disrupting everyday life through school closures, overwhelmed hospitals and damage to roads and railways.

Global ocean temperatures also remained exceptionally high. Average sea-surface temperatures in August tied the record set in March 2024 for the warmest month on record, while August 22 was the hottest day ever recorded across the world’s oceans, Copernicus said.

US Records Broken

The United States also experienced an exceptionally hot summer. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Wednesday that summer 2026 was the hottest on record for the contiguous US, surpassing the previous record set during the devastating Dust Bowl of 1936.

The June-August average temperature in the Lower 48 states was 74.37°F (23.54°C), nearly 0.4°F higher than the 1936 record.

August alone averaged 75.58°F (24.21°C), more than half a degree above the previous record. The average daytime high reached 88.56°F (31.42°C), also setting a record.

Climate scientist Zeke Hausfather of Berkeley Earth said the repeated breaking of temperature records, particularly an August record despite July typically being warmer, points to the growing influence of human-caused climate change.

Fossil Fuels Remain The Main Driver

Scientists said El Niño is contributing to the extreme temperatures but remains a relatively small factor compared with the long-term warming caused by greenhouse-gas emissions from burning coal, oil and natural gas.

Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London, said El Niño is adding to the heat, but the underlying driver remains continued fossil-fuel use.

Burgess said El Niño typically raises global temperatures by only around 0.1°C to 0.2°C, with most of the warming attributable to human-caused climate change.

The current El Niño is expected to become exceptionally strong in the coming months, potentially pushing temperatures even higher. Scientists warn that rising global temperatures will increase the frequency and severity of heat waves, storms, floods and wildfires.

Hausfather said there is a growing possibility that 2026 could overtake 2024 as the hottest year on record, while 2027 could surpass both, potentially reaching around 1.8°C above pre-industrial levels if the unusually strong El Niño develops as forecast.

Burgess also warned that some individual days could cross another major threshold of 2°C above mid-19th-century levels.

UN climate chief Simon Stiell said continued fossil-fuel consumption would drive further record heat, worsening impacts on health and transport systems, increasing food costs and imposing trillions of dollars in economic losses.