Third warmest August worldwide

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Last August was the third warmest ever recorded worldwide. The average temperature was 16.60 degrees Celsius, according to the climate change service of the EU’s Copernicus program on Tuesday.

This made the month 0.22 degrees cooler than the records set in 2023 and 2024, but 1.29 degrees above the pre-industrial level for August. The twelve-month period from September 2024 to August 2025 was 1.52 degrees warmer than the average temperature from 1850 to 1900.

In southwestern Europe, August brought the third major heat wave of the summer, accompanied by exceptional forest fires, according to Samantha Burgess of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), which operates the climate change service.

“Oceans unusually warm”

“As the world’s oceans remain unusually warm, these events underscore not only the urgency but also the necessity of adapting to more frequent and intense climate extremes.”

A particularly severe heatwave was recorded from August 8 to 18. It affected large parts of the Iberian Peninsula and southwestern France. Northern and northeastern Europe, on the other hand, were below the long-term temperature average.

Overall, the summer of 2025 in Europe was the fourth warmest since records began. Temperatures were 0.90 degrees above the reference value from 1991 to 2020. Western and southeastern Europe and Turkey were the most severely affected.

Drought and extreme rainfall

In large parts of western and southern Europe, the summer was drier than usual, while locally there was heavy rainfall – for example in southern France, Italy, and Germany. Outside Europe, the US and Canada, among others, suffered from drought, while regions in East Asia and South America received more rain.

The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service regularly publishes data on temperatures, sea ice, and precipitation. This is based, among other things, on the ERA5 dataset, which incorporates billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft, and weather stations worldwide.

August in Austria also too warm

August in Austria was also very warm this year. According to measurements by Geosphere Austria, it was 2.6 degrees warmer in the lowlands and 3.0 degrees warmer in the mountains compared to the pre-industrial period. This means that the average in Austria is significantly higher than the globally measured temperature.

“This puts Austria’s lowlands in 20th place in the series of warmest August months in 259 years of measurement history and the mountains in 18th place in the 175-year mountain measurement series,” said meteorologist Alexander Orlik in a press release.