Monthly climate report
Climate report: August 2026
Global land temperature (NASA GISTEMP v4) and atmospheric CO₂: where things stand at the end of August 2026.
Global temperature in August 2026
- August 2026 (land)
- +2.20 °Cversus 1901–1930
- Rank of the month
- 2ndof 147 Augusts on record
- 2026, January–August
- +1.96 °C3rd of 147 years
- 12-month average
- +1.96 °C12 months ending August 2026
In August 2026, land areas worldwide were +2.20 °C warmer than the 1901–1930 average, according to NASA's GISTEMP v4 analysis, compared with +1.78 °C in August 2025. That makes it the 2nd warmest August in 147 years of records. The record for this month remains August 2024 (+2.25 °C).
From January to August, 2026 averages +1.96 °C — the 3rd warmest start to a year since 1880.
Over the 12 months ending in August 2026, the land average is +1.96 °C, against +2.04 °C over the previous 12 months. The highest 12-month average remains the one ending in August 2024 (+2.21 °C).
Every month since August 2025 has been more than 1.5 °C above the 1901–1930 average — 13 months in a row.
These figures cover land areas only. Land warms faster than the ocean, so the values are higher than the combined land-and-ocean averages usually quoted.
The last 13 months
| Month | Anomaly vs 1901–1930 |
|---|---|
| August 2026 | +2.20 °C |
| July 2026 | +1.83 °C |
| June 2026 | +1.74 °C |
| May 2026 | +1.66 °C |
| April 2026 | +1.79 °C |
| March 2026 | +2.36 °C |
| February 2026 | +2.38 °C |
| January 2026 | +1.76 °C |
| December 2025 | +1.93 °C |
| November 2025 | +2.01 °C |
| October 2025 | +1.85 °C |
| September 2025 | +2.05 °C |
| August 2025 | +1.78 °C |
The 10 warmest Augusts on record
Land areas, 1880–2026.
| # | Year | Anomaly vs 1901–1930 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | August 2024 | +2.25 °C |
| 2 | August 2026this report | +2.20 °C |
| 3 | August 2023 | +1.87 °C |
| 4 | August 2016 | +1.80 °C |
| 5 | August 2025 | +1.78 °C |
| 6 | August 2022 | +1.61 °C |
| 7 | August 2011 | +1.50 °C |
| 8 | August 2021 | +1.47 °C |
| 9 | August 2019 | +1.45 °C |
| 10 | August 2017 | +1.44 °C |
Atmospheric CO₂
The annual mean rose from 424.60 ppm in 2024 to 427.35 ppm in 2025, +2.8 ppm in one year.
Sources and method
- Temperatures: NASA GISS, GISTEMP v4, monthly mean over land areas, rebased to 1901–1930 (file of November 14, 2026).
- Ranks use the months known at the date of the report. NASA slightly revises past values at each update, so figures can move by a few hundredths of a degree.
- CO₂: NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory, Mauna Loa Observatory.