January 2026 fifth-warmest globally with Europe chilly wave and Southern Hemisphere warmth – Company Technique & Outlook

January 2026 ranked because the fifth-warmest January on report, with world temperatures averaging 1.47°C above pre-industrial ranges, in response to ECMWF’s Copernicus Local weather Change Service. Sea floor temperatures had been near-record highs within the North Atlantic and North Pacific.
| Photograph Credit score:
C3S/ECMWF

January 2026 was the fifth warmest on report and marked by sharp temperature extremes within the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, in response to the European Centre for Medium-Vary Climate Forecasts (ECMWF’s) Copernicus Local weather Change Service (C3S). January was additionally recorded at 1.47°C above pre-industrial temperatures.

Within the closing weeks of January, the Northern Hemisphere skilled intense chilly waves because the polar jet stream spilled icy air into Europe and North America. This led to Europe recording its coldest January since 2010, with a median temperature of -2.34°C.

Regardless of these chilly episodes, month-to-month temperatures had been nonetheless above common throughout a lot of the globe, together with giant areas of the Arctic and western North America.

Within the Southern Hemisphere, record-breaking warmth triggered excessive situations, together with wildfires that escalated within the second half of January, in response to the Copernicus Ambiance Monitoring Service (CAMS). That included intense blazes that claimed lives throughout Australia, Chile and Patagonia. Heavy rains throughout Southern Africa within the closing week of the month triggered extreme flooding, notably in Mozambique, with catastrophic impacts on lives and livelihoods.

Samantha Burgess, Strategic Lead for Local weather at ECMWF, commented: “January 2026 delivered a stark reminder that the local weather system can typically concurrently ship very chilly climate in a single area and excessive warmth in one other. Whereas human actions proceed to drive long-term warming, these latest occasions spotlight that resilience and adaptation to growing extremes are key to making ready society for heightened local weather danger sooner or later.”

World temperature

In keeping with the ERA5 dataset, January 2026 was the fifth-warmest January globally, with a median floor air temperature of 12.95°C, which is 0.51°C above the 1991-2020 common for the month.

January 2026 was 0.28°C decrease than the warmest January on report in 2025. It was 1.47°C increased than the estimated 1850-1900 common used to outline the pre-industrial degree.

Sea floor temperature

The common sea floor temperature (SST) for January 2026 over 60°S–60°N was 20.68°C, the fourth-highest worth on report for the month, 0.29°C under the January 2024 report.

A big area of the subtropical and the northeast North Atlantic, together with the Norwegian Sea, had the warmest SSTs on report for the time of yr.

A lot of the North Pacific continued to report a lot above-average SSTs. In distinction, SSTs had been close to or barely under the 1991-2020 common within the central and jap equatorial Pacific, reflecting weak La Niña situations.

Essentially the most below-average SSTs had been recorded within the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean, the central South Pacific Ocean, and the Tasman Sea, in response to the report.

Europe and different areas

In the course of the second half of January 2026, extreme chilly situations unfold throughout giant components of the Northern Hemisphere, together with North America, Europe and Siberia, primarily pushed by a extra wavy-than-usual polar jet stream that allowed frigid Arctic air to spill into mid-latitudes.

The common temperature over European land for January 2026 was -2.34°C, about 1.63°C under the 1991-2020 common for January, making it Europe’s coldest January since 2010.

Essentially the most pronounced warmer-than-average temperatures occurred throughout the Arctic, most notably within the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Baffin Bay, Greenland, and the Russian Far East. Above-average temperatures had been additionally recorded throughout components of southern South America, northern Africa, central Asia and huge areas of Australia and Antarctica..

Printed on February 10, 2026