August 2026 Ties Hottest-Month Record at 1.65°C — SkimNews
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- Copernicus Climate Change Service confirmed August 2026 tied with July 2023 as the hottest month ever recorded, with global temperatures 1.65°C above preindustrial levels and sea surface temperatures hitting record August highs.
- The coming El Niño, forecast as potentially the most intense on record and "supercharged by the climate crisis," has not yet reached full strength — expected toward the end of 2026 — meaning August's record came before the natural warming driver fully kicked in.
- Friederike Otto of Imperial College London said that while El Niño is "ramping up the heat," the underlying driver remains "relentless burning of fossil fuels," and warned "record-shattering months will simply keep on coming" until coal, oil and gas burning stops.
- Simon Stiell, the UN climate chief, said extreme heat has been "killing millions and costing trillions," hitting transport and health systems and pushing up food prices — and called for governments to deliver "a faster shift to clean energy," protect forests and oceans, and build climate resilience.
- August 2026 marked the first time monthly temperatures exceeded the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C limit; the UN conceded the "overshoot" and said large-scale removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere would be needed to remedy it.
- Ruth Fuller, chief climate adviser at WWF UK, warned that the run of broken records increases the risk that natural systems will be irreversibly pushed past tipping points — potentially breaking down the Arctic ice cap and the Amazon rainforest as climate stabilizers.
Why it matters: Energy and climate policymakers face intensifying pressure as August 2026 is the first month to overshoot the Paris 1.5°C limit, with El Niño — forecast as potentially the most intense on record — yet to peak, meaning the worst heating of the year may still lie ahead and compounding drought-driven food price pressure.
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