Earth’s Hottest August Pushes Oceans and Communities to the Brink

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported that El Niño helped shape these conditions, influencing temperatures, rainfall and tropical cyclones across different regions.

August 2026 brought record heat across the planet, with reports from the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA identifying it as the hottest August recorded. The Northern Hemisphere experienced its warmest summer from June through August, and the Southern Hemisphere passed through a near-record warm winter, adding to a month marked by exceptionally warm seas, drought and shifting storm activity.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported that El Niño helped shape these conditions, influencing temperatures, rainfall and tropical cyclones across different regions. Its latest update expects the firmly established climate pattern to strengthen into a very strong event in the coming months, with effects on weather extending well into 2027.

Record Heat Stretches Across Land and Sea

Copernicus data placed August alongside July 2023 as the warmest month ever recorded, with the global average surface air temperature reaching 1.65°C above the estimated pre-industrial baseline. NOAA's assessment found August temperatures were 1.32°C above the 20th-century average, making it the warmest August in its record stretching back to 1850. These figures use different reference periods, but both show the exceptional scale of the heat.

Record August temperatures appeared across Greenland and Africa, parts of Europe, Asia and the Americas, and extensive ocean areas. NOAA reported that all ten of the warmest Augusts have occurred since 2016, showing how heavily recent years dominate the temperature rankings. Sea ice extent was below average in both the Arctic and Antarctic, adding another sign of unusual conditions across the planet.

Ocean temperatures reached a daily record of 21.11°C across waters outside the polar regions. Particularly warm conditions covered much of the tropical Pacific, where El Niño is established, and August sea temperatures broke records along Europe's Atlantic coast and in the western Mediterranean, with widespread strong or severe marine heatwaves.

El Niño Shapes an Uneven Storm Season

August produced 19 tropical storms worldwide, putting global activity above average, although the distribution differed sharply between ocean basins. Five storms reached hurricane or typhoon strength, and four became major systems classified as Category 3 or higher. The Atlantic recorded just two weak, short-lived tropical storms, reflecting an unusually quiet month in that basin.

Warmer waters across the central and eastern tropical Pacific helped fuel eight named storms in the Eastern North Pacific basin. Typhoon Dolphin was the strongest tropical cyclone of the season to make landfall in China, illustrating the serious regional consequences that can sit behind global storm totals. WMO also linked El Niño to heavy rainfall and flooding in some countries, with drought affecting others.

Dry conditions associated with El Niño favoured the intensification of seasonal wildfires in Indonesia, according to the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service. The combination of changing rainfall and exceptional warmth created very different challenges across regions, from managing floodwater to coping with fires and prolonged dry spells.

Europe's Heat Leaves Rivers Running Low

Western Europe experienced further heatwaves in August, extending an exceptional period of extreme heat that began in May. Widespread dryness affected much of the region and large areas of central and eastern Europe, with severe drought reported in France, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Romania and Serbia. Some places had endured persistent dry conditions since May, allowing the pressure on water supplies to build over several months.

Major rivers across the affected regions recorded exceptionally low flows, including the Rhine, Danube, Southern Bug and Dnieper. These depleted waterways showed how prolonged heat and scarce rainfall were reshaping conditions far beyond the temperature records themselves. WMO will draw on observations from Copernicus, NOAA, NASA and other datasets for its climate update at COP31 in Antalya, Turkey, in November.