July 2026 Tied Earth's Hottest Month on Record, NOAA Says

July 2026 tied 2024 as the hottest July on record, with the planet's temperature running 2.12 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average, NOAA said in its monthly global climate report released Tuesday. A separate analysis from Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Service ranked July 2026 as tied for the second-hottest month with 2024, slightly behind July 2023.

Record Heat on Land and Sea

The contiguous United States posted its hottest July on record — just over 0.1 degrees warmer than July 1936, America's previous record-hot month — and two dozen major cities with long weather histories are on pace for their warmest year ever, including Dallas, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Salt Lake City. Outside polar regions, ocean temperatures have run record-warm for the time of year every day since June 19, ending July just shy of the all-time ocean temperature record set in March 2024, Copernicus found.

What It Means for the Year

A rapidly intensifying El Niño is adding heat to a planet already warmed by greenhouse gas emissions. NOAA's outlook gives no chance that 2026 tops 2024's record by year's end, but a 61 percent probability that the year finishes second or third warmest. Each of Earth's 10 warmest years since 1850 has occurred since 2015.

The record months come as soil-moisture feedback amplifies European heat waves and as 2026 wildfires have already emitted more than 8 million tonnes of CO2 across EU member states, according to Copernicus data reported earlier this month — a reminder that the record warmth is compounding rather than isolated, scientists said.