World's Seas Record Hottest July As Europe Faces Record Heatwaves, Drought & Wildfires

The world’s seas recorded their highest temperatures for any July last month, with record sea surface temperatures along the Atlantic coast and in the western Mediterranean, scientists have said.

According to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, severe marine heatwaves affected European waters, while the global average sea surface temperature outside the polar regions surpassed the previous July record set in 2023.

Surface air temperatures globally in July 2026 were only 0.01C cooler than in July 2024. Scientists therefore consider the two months the joint-second warmest Julys on record.

Western Europe Records Hottest June-July

Western Europe experienced its hottest June-July period on record, with extreme temperatures contributing to wildfires across parts of the Mediterranean.

The first two months of summer 2026 were 2.79C hotter than usual, Copernicus said on Monday, surpassing the previous record set four years ago and highlighting the “exceptional persistence of heat” since the start of the season.

Central Europe has also been hit by a heatwave, with national temperature records falling in countries including Austria and Slovakia. The prolonged heat has dried vegetation and increased conditions conducive to fires.

Samantha Burgess, a climate scientist at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, described the summer as “a clear example” of climate breakdown intensifying interconnected extremes.

“[As] persistent high-pressure systems trapped heat over western Europe, the extreme temperatures also amplified widespread drought,” she said. “As soils dry out, they lose their ability to provide natural cooling, allowing heat to build more readily.”

A series of heatwaves has affected Europe since the end of spring, intensified by fossil fuel pollution. Particularly severe heat at the end of June is expected to have resulted in more than 10,000 deaths.

Drought Hits Water, Farming And Power

Copernicus said widespread dry conditions observed in May and June worsened in July, with exceptionally low rainfall and soil moisture recorded across much of western Europe.

France, Spain and parts of Germany and the UK were among the affected regions. Low river flows disrupted water supplies, irrigation and power generation, including in downstream countries.

A shortage of cooling water forced two coal-fired power plants in Poland to shut last week. Hungary’s only nuclear power plant was also forced to close for the first time in its 44-year history.

Heat and drought pose major environmental threats to Europe’s economy. Early estimates indicate that the June heat caused €2 billion in crop losses for grain farmers.

Economists have warned that the long-term economic impact could exceed immediate losses, particularly when droughts persist for several years.

A working paper led by the CMCC European Institute on Economics estimated that the 2015-18 mega-drought cost Europe €439 billion, causing substantial short-term losses in agriculture and smaller but persistent effects on manufacturing and construction.

Marta Mastropietro, a researcher at CMCC and the Polytechnic University of Milan and lead author of the study, said: “Even a single dry year causes real economic damage, but a persistent drought is different: its effects can compound across sectors and keep accumulating for years afterward.

“That intersection between compounding and long-lasting impacts is what conventional impact estimates tend to miss.”

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Wildfires Burn Half-Million Hectares

About half a million hectares have burned across the European Union since the beginning of the year, according to data from the European Forest Fire Information System.

The fires have also resulted in above-average pollution as burning vegetation releases thick smoke. Hot, dry and windy conditions that complicate firefighting efforts have reached record levels of severity for this time of year.

Víctor Resco de Dios, a professor of forestry engineering at the University of Lleida, said: “Climate change is creating increasingly favourable conditions for the development of mega-wildfires.

“The good news is that through vegetation management and urban planning we can largely mitigate the problem,” he said. “However, we must be clear about one thing: what seems extreme to us today will be remarkably benign in a few decades if we continue to fail to take the necessary adaptive measures.”