Global average surface temperature in August ran 2.38 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average, the warmest reading for the month in a climate record that stretches back 177 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Information. The reading edged out the previous record — a tie between 2023 and 2024 — by 0.14 degrees Fahrenheit. It marked the 48th consecutive August with above-average global temperatures, and two independent scientific groups tracking the planet separately reached the same conclusion.
August edges out 2023 and 2024 by 0.14 degrees
NOAA’s monthly climate report blends land and ocean surface readings from weather stations, ships and buoys around the world, then compares the result against the 20th-century average to produce a single global anomaly figure. August 2026 also anchored the warmest meteorological summer, June through August, in the same 177-year dataset, averaging 2.18 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. NOAA has published a version of this monthly report continuously since 1880, and the current dataset incorporates ship-based readings that predate the founding of the U.S. Weather Bureau itself, which is part of why NOAA describes it as a 177-year record rather than a shorter satellite-era one.
Every one of the ten warmest Augusts on record has occurred since 2016, according to NOAA’s 177-year global climate record, and the streak of 48 consecutive above-average Augusts stretches back to the last below-average one, in 1978. Regionally, North America and Africa each posted their warmest August on record, Asia its second-warmest, and Europe and South America their fourth-warmest apiece.
“What stands out is how widespread and persistent the warmth has been, from the atmosphere to the oceans,” said Tyler Roys, an AccuWeather meteorologist, pointing to daily global sea surface temperatures that topped 70 degrees Fahrenheit on Aug. 24 and 25, surpassing the previous ocean-heat record set in March 2024. AccuWeather also tallied at least 2,700 heat-related deaths across England and Wales during the period, while falling water levels on the Rhine and Danube disrupted shipping, agriculture and drinking-water supplies in several European countries.
Independent trackers agree: WMO and Berkeley Earth
NOAA is not the only organization tracking the planet’s temperature, and the others reached similar conclusions using different baselines and methods. The World Meteorological Organization, drawing on Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, found that August 2026 tied July 2023 as the joint-warmest month ever measured, at 1.65 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average used in that dataset.
Berkeley Earth, an independent research group, put August 2026 at 1.71 degrees Celsius above its own 1850-to-1900 baseline — also a record for the month, even though it is measured against a different starting point than NOAA’s 20th-century average. Scientists Robert Rohde and Zeke Hausfather, who lead Berkeley Earth’s temperature analysis, noted that the highest daily global sea surface temperature ever recorded, 21.11 degrees Celsius, also fell during the period WMO reviewed. Berkeley Earth draws on a denser network of weather stations than some other datasets, so its month-to-month rankings occasionally shift once additional data arrives, though its August 2026 record finding has held up since publication.
The hottest summer in U.S. history, too
The heat was not confined to global averages. Inside the United States, NOAA measured an average August temperature of 75.6 degrees Fahrenheit, 3.5 degrees above the 20th-century average and the warmest August in the country’s own climate record. California, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado each recorded their warmest August on record, and California and New Mexico also posted their warmest daytime high temperatures ever measured for the month.
The same summer, June through August, ranked as the warmest on record for the contiguous U.S., at 74.4 degrees Fahrenheit, beating the prior records set in 1936 and 2021 by 0.4 degrees. At the state level, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico each posted their hottest summer in the 132 years those state-level records have been kept, and Arizona tied its own warmest-summer mark, a run of heat that stretched from the Rockies to the Pacific coast.
Rainfall told a split story. The Lower 48 averaged 2.30 inches of precipitation in August, 0.32 inch below normal and the driest August since 2000, even as Indiana and Ohio each logged their wettest August on record — roughly double their typical totals — while Texas and Oklahoma received less than 30% of their normal rainfall. The split complicated crop conditions across the Midwest and deepened drought concerns on the southern Plains, even as both regions posted temperatures well above normal for the month.
A 93% shot at the hottest year on record
Berkeley Earth’s broader look at 2026 found the January-through-August period running 1.489 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the second-warmest such stretch the group has measured, trailing only the same months of 2024. Extrapolating from that pace, the group put the odds of 2026 finishing as the warmest calendar year on record at 93%, with a second-place finish behind 2024 the only other realistic outcome, at roughly 7%.
NOAA, WMO and Berkeley Earth all describe 2026 as tracking within the same long-term warming trend that has produced ten record Augusts in the past decade, and NOAA’s next monthly comparison — September’s global figures — is due within weeks, a live test of whether the streak reaches 49 straight above-average months.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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