Copernicus Confirms September 2026 as the Second-Warmest September on Record Globally

12 October 2026National

The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) reported on 12 October 2026 that September 2026 was the second-warmest September in the ERA5 record, with a global average surface air temperature of 16.27 degrees C - 0.82 degrees C above the 1991-2020 September mean and 1.63 degrees C above the estimated 1850-1900 pre-industrial level, and 0.11 degrees C cooler than the record September 2023. Parts of Europe were also hit by extreme precipitation. The reading keeps the Paris Agreement's 1.5 degrees C guardrail under strain and follows C3S's finding that August 2026 was the joint-warmest month ever recorded, tied with July 2023.

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Copernicus is the European Union's Earth observation programme; its climate and atmosphere services are implemented by the ECMWF | ERA5 is the ECMWF's global reanalysis dataset, covering 1940 onwards | The Paris Agreement, adopted at COP21 in 2015, seeks to hold warming well below 2 degrees C and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial levels

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