UAH v6.1 Global Temperature Update for August, 2026: +0.68 deg. C

September 2nd, 2026 by Roy W. Spencer, Ph. D.

The Version 6.1 global average lower tropospheric temperature (LT) anomaly for August, 2026 was +0.68 deg. C departure from the 1991-2020 mean, up from the July, 2026 value of +0.48 deg. C. It appears the effects of the strengthening major El Nino event are beginning to appear in the global average tropospheric temperature, with an August temperature anomaly of +0.9 deg. C. This month I’ve added a plot of tropical temperatures (below).

The Version 6.1 global area-averaged linear temperature trend (January 1979 through August 2026) remains at +0.16 deg/ C/decade (+0.22 C/decade over land, +0.13 C/decade over oceans).

The following table lists various regional Version 6.1 LT departures from the 30-year (1991-2020) average for the last 32 months (record highs are in red).

Year	Mon	Globe	NHem	SHem	Tropic	US48	Arctic	Aust.	Can.
2024	Jan	+0.80	+1.02	+0.57	+1.20	-0.19	+0.40	+1.12	+0.97
2024	Feb	+0.88	+0.94	+0.81	+1.16	+1.31	+0.85	+1.16	+2.45
2024	Mar	+0.88	+0.96	+0.80	+1.25	+0.22	+1.05	+1.34	+1.12
2024	Apr	+0.94	+1.12	+0.76	+1.15	+0.86	+0.88	+0.54	+1.39
2024	May	+0.77	+0.77	+0.78	+1.20	+0.04	+0.20	+0.52	+0.67
2024	June	+0.69	+0.78	+0.60	+0.85	+1.36	+0.63	+0.91	+0.19
2024	July	+0.73	+0.86	+0.61	+0.96	+0.44	+0.56	-0.07	+1.15
2024	Aug	+0.75	+0.81	+0.69	+0.74	+0.40	+0.88	+1.75	+1.36
2024	Sep	+0.81	+1.04	+0.58	+0.82	+1.31	+1.48	+0.98
2024	Oct	+0.75	+0.89	+0.60	+0.63	+1.89	+0.81	+1.09	+0.89
2024	Nov	+0.64	+0.87	+0.40	+0.53	+1.11	+0.79	+1.00	+1.61
2024	Dec	+0.61	+0.75	+0.47	+0.52	+1.41	+1.12	+1.54	+1.65
2025	Jan	+0.45	+0.70	+0.21	+0.24	-1.07	+0.74	+0.48	+1.04
2025	Feb	+0.50	+0.55	+0.45	+0.26	+1.03	+2.10	+0.87	-0.35
2025	Mar	+0.57	+0.73	+0.41	+0.40	+1.24	+1.23	+1.20	+0.80
2025	Apr	+0.61	+0.76	+0.46	+0.36	+0.81	+0.85	+1.21	+0.45
2025	May	+0.50	+0.45	+0.55	+0.30	+0.15	+0.75	+0.98	+0.81
2025	June	+0.48	+0.48	+0.47	+0.30	+0.80	+0.05	+0.39	-0.22
2025	July	+0.36	+0.49	+0.23	+0.45	+0.32	+0.40	+0.53	-0.23
2025	Aug	+0.39	+0.39	+0.39	+0.16	-0.06	+0.82	+0.11	+0.62
2025	Sep	+0.53	+0.56	+0.49	+0.35	+0.38	+0.77	+0.30	+2.44
2025	Oct	+0.53	+0.52	+0.55	+0.24	+1.12	+1.42	+1.67	+2.59
2025	Nov	+0.43	+0.59	+0.27	+0.24	+1.32	+0.78	+0.36	+1.47
2025	Dec	+0.30	+0.45	+0.15	+0.19	+2.10	+0.32	+0.37	-1.86
2026	Jan	+0.35	+0.51	+0.19	+0.09	+0.30	+1.40	+0.95	+1.17
2026	Feb	+0.39	+0.54	+0.23	+0.03	+1.91	-0.48	+0.73	+0.32
2026	Mar	+0.38	+0.33	+0.42	+0.07	+3.74	-0.48	+1.14	-3.17
2026	Apr	+0.39	+0.43	+0.34	+0.23	+1.20	+0.30	+0.70	-0.89
2026	May	+0.53	+0.46	+0.60	+0.58	+0.21	+0.34	+0.10	+0.21
2026	June	+0.46	+0.54	+0.38	+0.57	+0.64	+1.01	+0.38	+0.99
2026	July	+0.48	+0.68	+0.27	+0.85	+1.14	+0.53	-0.22	+0.78
2026	August	+0.68	+0.76	+0.59	+0.90	+0.60	+0.80	+0.39	+0.71
Year	Mon	Globe	NHem	SHem	Tropic	US48	Arctic	Aust.	Can.

Time Series Plots for Tropics, USA48, Canada, and Australia

The full UAH Global Temperature Report, along with the LT global gridpoint anomaly map for August, 2026 and a more detailed analysis by John Christy, should be available within the next several days here. John officially retired with emeritus professor status on July 1, 2026, and is now working as a part-time employee of UAH.

The monthly anomalies for various regions for the four deep layers we monitor from satellites will be available in the next several days at the following locations: