Published on
10/09/2026 – 4:52 GMT+2
August has shattered global temperature records, becoming the hottest month ever documented in Earth’s history. According to the European climate service Copernicus, this unprecedented heat results from a perilous mix of human-driven climate change and an intensified El Niño event.
Temperatures surged well beyond critical climate benchmarks, propelling both the globe and the Northern Hemisphere into their warmest summer on record. The global average temperature last month reached 16.96 degrees Celsius, narrowly surpassing the previous all-time high set in July 2023 by just one-hundredth of a degree.
Worldwide, August’s temperatures ran 1.65 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, significantly exceeding the 1.5-degree threshold established by the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Copernicus data reveals that the eight warmest months on record have all occurred since July 2023.
Global sea surface temperatures in August matched the record set in March 2024 for the warmest month ever recorded, while August 22 marked the hottest day ever documented in the world’s oceans, according to Copernicus.
Human Activities and El Niño Identified as Primary Drivers
Climate scientists acknowledge El Niño as a contributing factor, though they emphasize that human activities are the dominant force behind rising temperatures. “While El Niño is beginning to amplify the heat, the primary driver remains our unwavering reliance on fossil fuels. Climate change intensifies every El Niño effect, and as long as we continue burning coal, oil, and gas, we will keep witnessing these extraordinary temperature milestones,” stated Friederike Otto, a climate researcher at Imperial College London.
Burgess noted that El Niño typically contributes only one to two-tenths of a degree Celsius to global temperatures, with the vast majority of warming attributed to greenhouse gas emissions from human activities.
However, scientists predict this El Niño will reach unprecedented strength in the coming months. As temperatures continue their upward trend, extreme weather events such as heatwaves, intense storms, flooding, and wildfires are expected to become both more frequent and more severe, according to Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University.
“It Is Time to Stop Acting Surprised”
“We must stop being surprised that our planet continues to warm. This development aligns precisely with what scientists have been predicting for decades,” said Andrew Dessler, a climate scientist at Texas A&M University. “The real question isn’t whether we’ll continue breaking heat records, but whether we’ll take meaningful action or remain passive as climate chaos escalates.”
“Our climate system is functioning far outside the parameters we would have anticipated just ten years ago,” explained Samantha Burgess, strategic climate lead at Copernicus. “We’ve moved from viewing climate change as a distant concern affecting remote regions to experiencing its direct impact on our daily lives through school closures, hospital capacity crises, melting roadways, and buckling rail lines. Regrettably, these conditions represent the new normal we can expect to see more frequently.”
Copernicus climate records extend back to 1940, while NOAA data for the United States traces back to 1895. Global datasets, which generally corroborate Copernicus findings but require additional processing time, date back to 1880.
Additional sources • AP, AFP
