Europe experiences extreme heatwave, hottest August in 125,000 years

The European continent is experiencing one of the hottest summer seasons ever documented, with temperatures reaching record levels and leading to a significant increase in heat-related deaths.

The European climate monitoring service Copernicus announced that August 2026 marked a new historic peak in temperatures, recording a global average air temperature of 16.96°C.

“August 2026 was an extraordinary month in the world’s climate history,” said Samantha Burgess, an expert at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).

She stressed that the month’s temperatures were extremely high compared with the Earth’s climatic past. According to Burgess, it is highly likely that humanity has not experienced similar temperatures for at least the past 100,000 years.

The record for the hottest month ever recorded is still held by July 2023, with a global average of 16.95°C, a figure only slightly lower than that recorded in August 2026.

Meanwhile, the June-August period this year ranks among the warmest periods on record, tying with the summer of 2024.

Drawing on climate data predating 1940, when modern systematic measurements began, researchers estimate that the period we are currently experiencing may be the warmest the planet has seen in around 125,000 years.

“As long as humanity continues to burn massive amounts of coal, oil and gas, the resulting pollution will continue to overheat the planet, and extreme heatwaves will keep breaking records,” warned Simon Stiell, head of the UN climate agency.

He added that the solutions are clear: accelerating the transition to cleaner energy sources and protecting forests and oceans.

The natural El Niño phenomenon has also contributed to the warming of ocean waters this year and influenced the emergence of extreme weather patterns, such as droughts and floods.

Experts warn that climate change is amplifying the impact of El Niño.

“Climate change is making every El Niño episode increasingly hotter and, as long as fossil fuels continue to be burned, these record-breaking months will continue one after another,” said Friederike Otto, professor of climate science at Imperial College London.

According to Copernicus data, the global average temperature in August was 1.65°C above pre-industrial levels. This figure significantly exceeds the Paris Climate Agreement’s most ambitious target of 1.5°C, and the threshold has been crossed for the first time since November 2025.