"The intensifying super El Niño, combined with global warming, is favored to make 2026 the hottest year on record, with 2027 expected to be even hotter."
"August 2026 was the planet’s hottest August since modern record-keeping began in 1850, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, or NCEI, reported September 10. NASA also rated it as the hottest August, and the European Copernicus Climate Change Service rated it as the hottest month in recorded history, tied with July 2023. The global average temperature for January-August 2026 was the second-highest on record, trailing only 2024.
Global ocean surface temperatures were the warmest on record for August, while global land temperatures were the second-warmest. The month was also the second-warmest August on record for global temperatures estimated by satellite through the lowest few miles of the atmosphere (the lower troposphere). North America and Africa both recorded their hottest August on record; Asia, its second-hottest; the Arctic, its third-hottest; South America and Europe, their fourth-hottest; and Oceania, its eighth-hottest.
The June-July-August period (summer in the Northern Hemisphere) was the hottest on record for North America, Africa, and the Arctic; second-hottest in Europe; third-hottest in Asia; and for South America and Oceania, the fourth-hottest."
Jeff Masters and Bob Henson report for Yale Climate Connections September 10, 2026.
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