Briefs · Frontier Science
May was the second-hottest ever, and Europe felt it first
May 2026 was the second-warmest May on record. Only May 2024 was hotter, and not by much.
The global average surface air temperature was 15.81°C, which is 0.55°C above the 1991–2020 average and 1.42°C above the pre-industrial level of 1850–1900. The seas followed suit: average sea surface temperature between 60°S and 60°N was 20.90°C, also the second highest for May.
Western Europe got the sharp end of it. Around 20 May the weather flipped, and one of the most intense early heatwaves on record swept France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Portugal. Feels-like temperatures reached 35–40°C, in May, when schoolchildren are supposed to be complaining about rain.
The planet is not warming politely, one gentle degree at a time. It is warming in lurches, and the lurches are arriving earlier in the year.
Conclusion: May was not a freak month, but rather a familiar pattern arriving early, hot and hard to ignore.
Read the original at Copernicus Climate Change Service
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