August 2026 tied with July 2023 as the world’s hottest month on record, Copernicus Climate Change Service said, and was the warmest August globally. It is a reported result for a single month of observations; it does not on its own determine whether the Paris Agreement’s long-term temperature benchmark has been passed.
A record shared with July 2023
Copernicus said August was not only the warmest August worldwide but also joint-warmest across all calendar months, matching July 2023. Copernicus’s ERA5-based estimate of global average surface-air temperature was 16.96°C. The estimate was 1.65°C above the 19th-century baseline.
The temperature value is expressed against the 19th-century baseline. Copernicus’s description of August combines two comparisons: it was the warmest August worldwide, and it matched July 2023 when all calendar months are considered. Both descriptions relate to the same August result, while making clear that the month shared, rather than exceeded, the record across the calendar.
These measurements describe the reported global temperature result for August. They do not make a projection about a later month, a future year or a long-term average. The tie matters because it puts August alongside the earlier record, rather than above it, in Copernicus’s account.
How the 1.5°C reading should be understood
August was the first month since November 2025 to exceed 1.5°C above the pre-industrial level. That comparison concerns one month. The Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C threshold, however, refers to a long-term, multi-decade average, not a single monthly reading. A monthly result above 1.5°C therefore should not be described as a breach of that benchmark.
Keeping those measures separate is important. Copernicus’s August result is an observed temperature measurement, while the Paris benchmark is a long-term, multi-decade average. The reported data do not support a conclusion that the threshold has been met on that basis or a claim about a future reading.
Oceans, impacts and climate drivers
Also reported were joint-record ocean temperatures. Reports described unusually severe heat, wildfire, drought and low river-flow impacts, as well as a strengthening El Niño context. Those reported conditions sit alongside the global temperature figure; they are not interchangeable measurements of the same thing.
The records and impacts should be read with their different meanings intact. The global figure is an ERA5-based average surface-air temperature, while the ocean temperatures, heat, wildfire, drought and river-flow impacts are separately reported parts of the wider account. The reported El Niño context is likewise context, not a replacement for the temperature measurement.
None of those elements is a forecast. The reported figures describe August 2026 and its comparisons with July 2023, the 19th-century baseline and the pre-industrial level. They also sit beside reports of ocean temperatures and impacts, which provide context without changing the meaning of the recorded global average surface-air temperature.
A careful reading of a single-month record
Scientists’ assessment that fossil-fuel emissions are the main driver should remain clearly attributed. It is not a direct measurement contained in August’s temperature figure. The strengthening El Niño context reported for the month should also be distinguished from that assessment, rather than used to make a broader causal claim than the evidence supports.
August’s position alongside July 2023 is a reported record, but its meaning is specific. It records a monthly comparison against the stated baseline and describes a month that exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. It should be understood with the long-term Paris benchmark, the separate ocean and impact reporting, and the distinction between observed data, projections and scientists’ climate-causation assessments kept clear.
