Western Europe affected by warmest summer on record
The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) has just published its latest monthly Climate Bulletin, which focuses on key climate trends for August 2026.
The summer of 2026 has been the warmest on record for western Europe (defined as land areas within 11°W–15°E and 37°–55°N), surpassing the long-standing record set in 2003, with an average surface air temperature from June to August of 21.69 °C, 2.54 °C above the 1991–2020 average. A succession of exceptionally early, persistent, and intense heatwaves across the region characterised the season.
This data visualisation, produced using C3S data, shows anomalies and extremes in surface air temperature across Europe during June and August 2026. Much of the west and the south of the continent falls within the warmer-than-average, much-warmer-than-average, and warmest categories. By contrast, near-average and cooler conditions have been recorded across parts of northern and eastern Europe.
More information is available here.
