Los Padres Hotshots digging handline on Utah’s Cottonwood Fire on June 25, 2026. At over 94,000 acres burned, the fire is one of the largest of the year so far. (Image credit: InciWeb, U.S. government)
June 2026 was the second-warmest June in analyses of global weather data going back to 1850, only 0.09 degree Celsius (0.16°F) below the 2024 record, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, or NCEI, reported July 9. NASA and the European Copernicus Climate Change Service also rated June 2026 as the second-warmest June. The global-average temperature for January-June 2026 was the third-highest on record, NOAA said.
Figure 1. Departure of temperature from average for June 2026, the world’s second-warmest June since record-keeping began in 1850. Record-high June temperatures were shattered across the eastern and central tropical Pacific Ocean, as well as portions of Canada, northern South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, and across parts of every major ocean basin. Record-cold June temperatures were not observed anywhere. (Image credit: NOAA/NCEI)
Across all 2,118 months in the historical record since January 1850, June 2026 tied with July 2023 for the seventh-highest departure of global ocean temperature from average. Meanwhile, global land surface temperatures ranked as the fourth warmest on record for the month. North America, Europe (tied), and Africa each experienced their second-warmest June on record. Oceania experienced its third-warmest June on record and Asia recorded its fourth warmest. While South America also observed an above-average June temperature, it did not rank among the ten warmest Junes.
