August 2026 sets global heat record, Copernicus says — Pajhwok

KABUL (Pajhwok): August 2026 tied July 2023 as the hottest month on record globally, with the average surface air temperature reaching 16.96 degrees Celsius, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Thursday. According to Copernicus, the August temperature was 1.65 degrees Celsius above the 1850–1900 pre-industrial average. It was the first month since November 2025 in which the global average temperature exceeded 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. The service said August 2026 was also warmer than August 2023 and 2024, although the difference from July 2023 was within the margin of uncertainty, meaning the two months are considered tied for the record. Meanwhile, the average sea surface temperature outside the polar regions reached 21.07 degrees Celsius in August, also tying the highest monthly level on record, according to Copernicus. The June-August 2026 period was among the hottest three-month periods recorded globally, alongside the same period in 2024. Copernicus is the EU’s Earth observation programme, while its Climate Change Service provides climate data and assessments based on observations and the ERA5 climate dataset.