10 September,2026 11:34 AM IST | Paris | mid-day online correspondent
The global average air temperature in August was 16.96 degrees Celsius, Copernicus said. Pic/AFP
August was the hottest single month ever recorded globally, with ocean temperatures also reaching unprecedented levels as western Europe experienced its warmest summer on record, the European Union's climate monitor Copernicus said on Thursday.
The assessment prompted a warning from the United Nations that the planet would continue to enter uncharted territory unless humanity moves away from fossil fuels.
Copernicus observations date back to 1940. However, other evidence, including ice cores, tree rings and coral skeletons, allows scientists to compare current temperatures with climate conditions over much longer periods.
"Humans haven't seen temperatures as hot as today for, arguably, at least the last 100,000 years," Samantha Burgess of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which oversees Copernicus, told AFP.
The global average air temperature in August was 16.96 degrees Celsius, Copernicus said. This was 0.01 degrees Celsius higher than the previous monthly record set in July 2023.
However, Copernicus considered the two months to be jointly the hottest on record because the difference between their temperatures was within the margin of uncertainty.
Scientists say human activity, primarily the burning of coal, oil and gas, has warmed the planet by roughly 1.4 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times. The warming has also increased the severity and likelihood of extreme weather events.
Greenhouse gas emissions also reached new highs in 2025, according to the report.
"The evidence is irrefutable: this is the spiralling price of humanity's fossil fuel addiction, and the global climate crisis it is fuelling," United Nations climate chief Simon Stiell said in response to the Copernicus findings.
Global sea surface temperatures also reached a new daily high and tied the record for the hottest August, extending a three-month period of record-breaking warmth across the world's oceans.
More than 90 per cent of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gas emissions has been absorbed by the oceans. While this has limited some of the warming over land, scientists warn that the additional heat is placing severe pressure on marine ecosystems, coral reefs and coastal communities.
Temperature records were broken in several ocean regions, including the Atlantic, Mediterranean and tropical Pacific.
The unusually warm conditions in the tropical Pacific are associated with El Nino, a natural climate pattern that can temporarily push up global temperatures and influence weather patterns thousands of kilometres away.
The developing El Nino has been accompanied by unusually warm Pacific waters and could increase the likelihood of extreme weather in different parts of the world.
Such conditions can contribute to heavy rainfall and flooding in some regions while increasing the risk of drought and heat in others.
El Nino episodes typically produce a temporary rise in global temperatures on top of the longer-term warming trend caused primarily by greenhouse gas emissions.
Scientists expect global temperature records to remain under pressure in the coming months as the current El Nino develops.
"Climate change makes every El Nino hotter, and until we stop burning coal, oil, and gas these record-shattering months will simply keep on coming," said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist from Imperial College London.
Copernicus said August marked the end of western Europe's warmest summer on record, surpassing the previous record set in 2003.
The June-to-August period was marked by repeated heatwaves that affected large parts of the continent. The extreme temperatures contributed to the drying of rivers, disruption of daily activities and conditions conducive to wildfires.
Between mid-July and mid-August, Europe's EuroMomo monitoring platform estimated that the continent recorded more than 32,000 excess deaths.
Scientists from the World Weather Attribution network concluded that a particularly intense heatwave in June would have been "virtually impossible" without the influence of climate change.
The extreme temperatures were not limited to Europe.
On Wednesday, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the contiguous United States had experienced its hottest summer on record.
An analysis of Copernicus data by AFP also found that regions home to around 900 million people experienced their hottest July ever recorded.
"We've had an exceptional summer -- not only in Europe, but other parts of the world where records that have existed for close to a century have fallen," Burgess, an ocean scientist and strategic lead at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, told AFP.
She warned that the trend towards more extreme conditions would continue unless greenhouse gas emissions are significantly reduced.
The climate would "continue to get more extreme unless we turn off the tap to global emissions", she added.
(With inputs from AFP)
