A firetruck passes as a wildfire called the Plaskett Fire burns towards Highway 1 on Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Big Sur, Calif. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
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.
Figure 1. Departure of temperature from average for August 2026, the world’s hottest August since record-keeping began in 1850. Globally, 13.2% of land and ocean surfaces set record-high August temperatures — the largest areal extent for any August on record and the third-highest for any month since 1951, trailing only May 2024 (14.3%) and April 2024 (13.9%). No land or ocean areas experienced record-cold August temperatures. (Image credit: NOAA/NCEI)
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.
