Cologne, 10 August 2026 (dpa/MIA) - Western Europe recorded its hottest-ever June and July, with average temperatures of 21.62 degrees Celsius, the Climate Change Service of the EU's Copernicus programme said on Monday.

That figure was 2.79 degrees above the June average for 1991 to 2020.

The programme, based in the German city of Bonn, noted a marked temperature gradient from Western Europe to Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, where conditions were considerably cooler. 

For Europe as a whole, last month ranked only as the 11th warmest July on record, with an average temperature of 20.49 degrees. 

Globally, it was the joint second-warmest July on record alongside 2024, at around 16.9 degrees, 1.47 degrees above the pre-industrial average for July. The record remains July 2023, which registered 16.95 degrees.

Western Europe has seen exceptionally prolonged heatwave conditions since late spring, with an unusual four heatwaves recorded since May, Copernicus said. The programme's records date back to 1950, with some earlier data also available.

Heat and drought reinforce each other

As in June and parts of May, conditions in July were drier than average across many areas of Europe. This particularly affected parts of the Iberian Peninsula, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary and the United Kingdom, according to Copernicus. Soil surface moisture in Western Europe in July was significantly lower than during the last drought-affected July in 2022.

"As soils dry out, they lose their ability to provide natural cooling, allowing heat to build more readily," said Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at Copernicus. "This is a clear example of how climate change is intensifying heat extremes, with heat and drought increasingly reinforcing one another."

Record-breaking ocean temperatures

River levels were well below long-term averages across large parts of the affected dry regions, with the Seine, the Rhine and the Danube among those most severely affected, Copernicus said.

The world's oceans also heated up to record levels. The global average sea surface temperature in July was the highest ever recorded for the month since records began, at 20.96 degrees. The previous record of 20.89 degrees was set in July 2023. The temperatures refer to seas outside the polar regions. 

Copernicus pointed to currently high temperatures in the equatorial Pacific as a result of the El Niño climate phenomenon, which is likely to strengthen further in the coming months.

Along the Atlantic coast and in the western Mediterranean, water temperatures reached record highs, accompanied by intense maritime heatwaves.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service publishes regular data on topics including surface air temperature, sea ice cover and precipitation. Its findings are based on computer-generated analyses drawing on billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world.

MIA file photo