Western Europe experienced the start of the hottest summer on record, with a new record set during June and July, as it was hit by repeated heat waves, widespread drought, and dramatic wildfires—phenomena exacerbated by climate change.
At the same time, in July 2026, the planet’s ocean surfaces reached unprecedented heat levels compared to any other month of the same name, the European Climate Change Observatory noted today in its monthly bulletin.
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“We have never experienced such conditions in our lifetimes, and probably not since the dawn of civilization,” Carlo Buondempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), warned reporters.
On a global scale, July 2026 tied with the same month in 2024 to become the second-hottest on record, second only to July 2023.
Drought
But it is Western Europe—the part of the continent warming faster than any other—where the phenomenon was most pronounced.
The combined average temperature for June and July in this region reached 21.62 ° Celsius, surpassing the 2022 record and “reflecting the exceptional persistence of the heat” this summer, Copernicus noted.
A record high had already been set in the region in June, and July ranks as the second-hottest on record. With an average temperature of 22.48 °C (2.53 ° Celsius higher than the 1991–2020 average), it ranks second, behind only July 2006 (22.54 ° Celsius).
Since May, Western Europe has experienced four heatwave episodes, two of which occurred in July.
The heat waves were exacerbated by a drought that was nearly widespread, affecting France, Spain, parts of Germany, and even the United Kingdom.
Copernicus emphasizes that in July, soil moisture levels in Western Europe were “significantly lower than those in July 2022, the last of which had been marked by severe drought” in that region.
This is a “clear example of how climate change intensifies (…) extreme heat,” which feeds into “drought” and mutually reinforce each other, summarizes Samantha Berges, a Copernicus official.
Immediate consequences: river water levels are “extremely low,” especially in the Seine, the Rhine, and the Danube. This is increasing pressure on water supply, irrigation, the ecosystems of these rivers, river transport, and even energy production in the countries through which they flow.
These conditions “led to exceptionally high levels of forest fire activity in this region, both in terms of the area burned and carbon dioxide emissions,” according to Copernicus.
In France, some 420,000 stremmata were affected by a massive fire in Gironde, while in Spain, 440,000 stremmata were scorched in the province of Ávila.
Are new records on the way?
In July, the world’s oceans recorded record-high temperatures for the second consecutive month. The average global sea surface temperature reached 20.96 °C, surpassing the previous record set in 2023.
Ocean temperatures reached “extremely high levels” across much of the tropical Pacific, a region where current conditions of the natural, cyclical climate phenomenon El Niño—which tends to warm the waters and raise global temperatures, causing extreme events such as droughts or floods— “are expected to intensify even further over the coming months.”
“We are facing a very strong El Niño, the intensity of which may be unprecedented,” noted Mr. Buondempo, estimating that it could set a new record for global average temperature by the end of the year or in early 2027.
However, “the main driver of rising temperatures—as we know—is greenhouse gases” emitted by humanity into the atmosphere, he added.
Already, around Europe, the waters of the western Mediterranean and along its Atlantic coastline recorded unusually high temperatures in July, consistent with episodes of marine heatwaves.
El Niño typically reaches its peak at the end of the year, when the heat accumulated in the ocean is released into the atmosphere, raising temperatures on a global scale.
The previous El Niño event contributed to making 2023 and 2024, respectively, the second-hottest and hottest years on record.
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Source: APE-MPE
