September 2026 was the second hottest September month on record, with global monthly average temperatures breaching 1.5°C for two consecutive months, according to the latest update from Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.
The average sea surface temperature (SST) for oceans outside the polar regions was also the highest on record, as El Nino conditions in the Equatorial Pacific Ocean keep intensifying as one of the strongest El Nino events, according to C3S.
Global average temperature for September 2026 was 16.27°C, which was 0.82°C above the average during 1991-2020 and 1.63°C above the pre-industrial (1850-1900) levels. The month was 0.11°C cooler than September 2023, making it the second-warmest on record.
September is the second consecutive month to record global temperature anomaly above 1.5°C, after August global temperatures were 1.65°C above the pre industrial levels. August 2026 was the joint hottest month on record, according to C3S.
Many regions around the world were drier than normal. “Drier-than-average regions included much of southern and northeastern North America, the Maghreb, part of the Horn of Africa, Siberia, large parts of central Asia, Pakistan, parts of China, parts of South America, and southeastern Australia,” according to a press release by C3S.
In contrast “wetter-than-average regions included large parts of the US and Canada, parts of northern Russia, central Asia north of the Indian subcontinent, eastern China, Japan, Chile, southern Argentina and southeastern Brazil as well as southernmost Africa and western Australia”, as per C3S. In several regions, heavy precipitation led to floods.
The SSTs outside the polar regions (60°S–60°N) created a new record in September with an average value of 21.05°C, going past the previous record of 20.92°C set in 2023.
“The monthly SST for the Nino 3.4 region (the ocean region used to monitor El Nino conditions) reached an all-time high of 29.70°C in September, exceeding the peak values of the previous very strong El Nino events of 1982 / 1983, 1997 / 1998 and 2015 / 2016 and underscoring the exceptional intensity of the current El Nino,” according to C3S press release.
“September was the second warmest on record globally, with exceptionally high temperatures experienced again across parts of Europe after an extreme summer,” said Carlo Buontempo, director of C3S, in the press release.
“We are in a new run of months above 1.5°C, and with a strong El Nino still intensifying it is likely to last into 2027. Crossing the Paris Agreement's long-term limit is only a matter of time,” he added.