The latest Climate Bulletin from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) reports that August 2026 was the world’s joint hottest month on record, pushing global temperatures back above 1.5°C above the pre-industrial average. One of the most striking findings from the report, however, is much closer to home: Western Europe experienced its warmest summer on record.
The map shows surface air temperature anomalies across Europe for June to August 2026 relative to the 1991–2020 average. Deep reds dominate much of France, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Benelux, western Germany, Switzerland, and northern Italy, highlighting how widespread and persistent the summer heat was. Rather than a series of isolated heatwaves, the map reveals a season-long pattern of exceptional warmth across the region.
Alongside the map, the accompanying chart places 2026 in historical context. Western Europe’s average summer temperature anomaly reached +2.54°C, comfortably surpassing the previous record set during the infamous 2003 European heatwave (+1.98°C). The growing number of warm summers since the early 2000s also illustrates the clear warming trend observed in the ERA5 climate record.
Beyond setting a new temperature record, the prolonged heat had widespread impacts. According to Copernicus, many parts of Western Europe experienced unusually low river flows, dry soils, agricultural stress, and elevated wildfire risk after successive heatwaves throughout the summer. These seasonal maps help connect individual weather events to broader climate patterns.
This week’s map is a powerful reminder of the value of climate data visualization. By combining spatial patterns with a long-term temperature record, it clearly shows not only where the summer of 2026 was exceptionally hot, but also how unprecedented it was in the context of nearly 50 years of observations.
