Copernicus announces thermal records in September 2026, with global temperatures of 16.27°C and severe drought in Europe

September 2026 was the second-hottest September ever recorded globally, with an average temperature of 16.27 degrees Celsius, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service. The data were published on Monday and point to a continuation of the global warming trend.

It was also the second consecutive month this year in which global temperatures exceeded pre-industrial levels by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. In Western Europe, September was the hottest such month ever recorded, while across the continent as a whole it ranked third.

Prolonged drought led to record-low flows in parts of the Rhine, Danube, Vistula and Garonne-Dordogne rivers. Low water levels affected navigation, water supplies and agriculture in several European countries.

In Antarctica, the annual maximum sea-ice extent, reached during the Southern Hemisphere winter, was the third-lowest ever recorded.

Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus programme, warned that exceptionally high temperatures persisted in some European regions after an extreme summer. He said that the intensification of the El Niño phenomenon could contribute to temperatures exceeding the 1.5-degree Celsius threshold in 2027 as well.

The Paris Agreement, signed in 2015 by 195 countries, aims to limit global warming to below two degrees Celsius compared with pre-industrial levels and, ideally, below 1.5 degrees. According to Buontempo, exceeding this threshold is inevitable, but the scale and duration of the exceedance will depend on the measures adopted.