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It is the word most used by meteorological services around the world to connote the average temperatures in the month of August. And in some cases also the number of heat-related deaths.
Europe has been particularly affected by heat waves, already in June, the hottest ever seen in the west of the continent. In Spain, more than 5,000 people have died from excessive heat, the highest number since the Carlos III health institute began collecting data in 2015. According to the institute, which is based in Madrid, deaths linked to exceptional temperatures were 2,149 in August, 2,025 in July and 937 in June, for a total of 5,111 in the three months. The previous record was set in 2022, with 4,652 victims.
Three times as much as Germany’s still provisional budget. As of August 16, there had been 15,800 heat victims according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the German health authority.
July was a scorching month in France, with an average of 24.9 degrees, but peaks of over 43 degrees had already been reached in June, with repercussions also on the Roland Garros tennis tournament, and the latest heat wave went on for 23 days between 28 July and 19 August.
In Austria, the thermometer reached over 40 degrees in August in several places including Vienna.
The summer of 2026 was the hottest ever recorded in the United Kingdom, the British meteorological agency Met Office announced today, with an average temperature between June 1st and August 31st of 16.5 degrees, more than the 16.1 degrees of the summer of 2025. Definitely lower than in southern Europe, but with some notable exceptions. The peak was reached on August 13, with 38.1 degrees in Kew Gardens, west London.
Hot, and lots of it, even in the usually rainy Belgium, where the heat alarm usually goes off above 25 degrees. According to the Royal Meteorological Institute, the summer of 2026 was the hottest on record with an average of 20.3 degrees. The previous record was in 2018, with 19.9 degrees, while the average for the last 30 years was 17.9 degrees. Therefore it is the first time that the average exceeds 20 degrees, thanks also to the high number of days in which the thermometer exceeded 30 degrees.
And even in the other part of the world there is no shortage of records. Australia had reached peaks of 50 degrees already in January. July was the hottest month on record in 48 US states. The August that just ended was the hottest in India since temperatures began to be recorded in 1901. On average, 28.01 degrees Celsius were recorded, the Indian Meteorological Agency reported, an increase of 0.67 degrees compared to the norm for the period.
Then, on 22 August, the record average temperature of ocean waters was recorded by Copernicus: 21.1 degrees, compared to 20.09 in March 2024, also under the effect of El Niño.