August was joint-hottest month ever recorded globally

A dried up reservoir in Miryang in South Korea, after severe heatwaves. Photograph: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/ View image in fullscreen A dried up reservoir in Miryang in South Korea, after severe heatwaves. Photograph: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/ August was joint-hottest month ever recorded globally Temperatures reached 1.65C above preindustrial levels, months before El Niño system reaches full strength August was the joint-hottest month ever recorded around the world, with global temperatures reaching 1.65C above preindustrial levels, scientists said on Thursday, amid warnings of further heating on the way. August 2026 tied with July 2023 for the hottest month ever recorded, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. Sea surface temperatures also soared to their highest levels on record for August. These temperatures were recorded even before the coming El Niño weather system has made much of an impact. El Niño is a naturally recurrent phenomenon whereby wind changes over the Pacific lead to rising ocean temperatures and the transfer of huge amounts of heat to the atmosphere, with the consequences felt around the world in floods, droughts and heatwaves. This year’s El Niño, likely to reach its full strength towards the end of the year, is forecast to be potentially the most intense on record, as it is now supercharged . Friederike Otto, a professor of climate science at Imperial College London, said: “While El Niño is starting to ramp up the heat, the underlying driver [behind this year’s high temperatures] 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.” View image in fullscreen A wildfire rages near Santa Maria, California. Photograph: Benjamin Hanson/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty ImagesThe impacts of August’s extreme heat are still being felt around the world, in the aftermath of devastating wildfires, damage to harvests, excess deaths from heatwaves and disruptions to transport, business and public services in many countries. Food price inflation is likely to increase further, as the impacts of smaller harvests are felt in domestic markets and imports. Simon Stiell, the UN climate chief, said that the economic and social damage of the summer was still being counted. “Extreme heat [has been] killing millions and costing trillions, hitting transport and health systems, and pushing up prices for household basics like food,” he said. “The evidence is irrefutable: this is the spiralling price of humanity’s fossil fuel addiction, and the global climate crisis it is fuelling.” View image in fullscreen Multiple heatwaves in the UK left green spaces parched.