August was world's joint hottest month on record, say climate change scientists

August was the world's joint hottest month ever recorded - at 1.65C above pre-industrial times, according to scientists.

The EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service said it was tied for the record with July 2023.

Pre-industrial times are classed as 1850 to 1900, when humans were not burning fossil fuels at scale. Last month was 1.65C higher than the estimated average for that period.

August saw extreme heat that led to drought conditions in the UK, France, Hungary, Serbia, and Romania, the Copernicus team said.

Rivers such as the Rhine and Danube also had exceptionally low flows.

Last week, the UK's Met Office said this summer was the hottest on record, with the average temperature 0.4C higher than the previous record - set last summer.

The landmark 2015 Paris climate deal saw countries agree to limit global warming to "well below" 2C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to keep them to 1.5C.

Scientists say temperatures above the 1.5C marker are associated with the most severe droughts, floods, and sea level rises.

August marked the first time the key threshold has been breached since November last year.

Sea surface temperatures also hit record highs in August due to fossil fuel burning and warming seas associated with the El Nino weather phenomenon (expected to be especially extreme this year), according to the Copernicus experts.

Away from polar regions, the seas measured 21.07C - which is also the joint highest ever, tied with March 2024.

Samantha Burgess, deputy director of Copernicus Climate Change Service, said it was a "remarkable month".

"Combined with record global sea surface temperatures and the warmest summer on record for Western Europe, these observations show how climate change is driving extremes across both the atmosphere and the oceans," she said.

"The impacts of these conditions are increasingly being felt by communities, economies and ecosystems across the world."

News of the record-setting month comes not long before the next global climate change conference - COP31 - in Antalya, Turkey, in November.

Gareth Redmond-King of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit said it was another "warning siren" of the effects of climate change.

He said world leaders at COP31 must "cut greenhouse gas emissions rapidly towards net zero while strengthening resilience to the impacts already locked in".

Mr Redmond-King added: "The task now is to match the scale of the science with the scale of action, supporting communities already on the front line of climate impacts while accelerating the transition away from coal, oil and gas to bring our climate back into balance."

(c) Sky News 2026: August was world's joint hottest month on record, say climate change scientists