GENEVA, (Pakistan Point News - 10th Jul, 2026) June 2026 was the hottest June recorded for western Europe and the second warmest globally, driven by the highest sea surface temperatures (SSTs) on record for the month, according to the monthly update from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).
The heat in parts of Western Europe is continuing in July, fuelling devastating wildfires in France and the Iberian Peninsula.
Spain’s Fabra Observatory in Barcelona - one of WMO’s long-term weather observing stations - recorded 40.5°C on 8 July - the highest temperature in more than one century of data.
France had a widespread amber alert (the second highest level) for heat as well as a high fire danger level because of drought, high temperatures and low humidity, according to Meteo-France.
WMO, its members and partners are mobilising with early warnings and coordinated heat-health action plans to try to save lives and inform decision-making on how to minimize economic and ecosystem damage and disruption to infrastructure and labour productivity. It is accompanied by localized violent storms and in some areas by worsening drought and the risk of wildfires.
Extreme heat is expected to occur at increasing frequency and intensity and duration, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
“Heatwaves like this are what we expect to see in a changing climate,” said John Kennedy, head of climate information at WMO. “In the 50 years since the historic heatwave in 1976, Europe as a whole has warmed by around two degrees. It’s the fastest warming continents and extremes of temperature have increased too,” he said.
June saw much of western Europe experiencing a record-breaking heatwave and marine heatwaves across the western Mediterranean and along the Atlantic coasts.
Globally, the monthly average sea-surface temperature for the extra-polar ocean (60°S–60°N) was the highest for June, exceeding the previous record set in June 2024 by just 0.01ºC. This partly reflected the development of strong El Niño conditions in the equatorial Pacific, according to Copernicus Climate Change Service.
The heatwave broke monthly and all-time temperature records across several European countries and contributed to severe health impacts, including heat-related deaths.
Europe also saw widespread dryness that, together with extreme heat, contributed to wildfire activity, particularly in the Iberian Peninsula and southern France, and heightened drought risk in parts of eastern Europe. The June heatwave occurred against a backdrop of increasingly dry soils across western and central Europe, further exacerbating drought conditions that had begun to develop during May's heatwave.
Globally June 2026 was the second-warmest in the ERA5 dataset, with an average surface air temperature of 16.54°C, 0.56°C above the 1991-2020 average for the month, behind June 2024.
The average temperature over European land in June 2026 was the second-highest on record for the month. Western Europe, the region most affected by the heatwave, experienced its warmest June on record, with an average temperature of 20.74°C, 3.05°C above the 1991–2020 average for June, surpassing the previous record set in June 2025.
