People walk on a sandbar underneath the Danube’s Margareth Bridge in downtown Budapest, Hungary, Wednesday Aug. 5, 2026, as the river, which runs through 10 European countries, has receded never-before-seen low water levels. (AP Photo\/Bela Szandelszky)<\/small><\/p>\n
2026-08-10T02:07:55Z<\/p>\n
BERLIN (AP) \u2014 The heat waves<\/a><\/span> roiling Western Europe this summer<\/a><\/span> toppled an average temperature record for the June-July period set in 2022, according to the European climate agency Copernicus.<\/p>\n The extreme heat<\/a><\/span> began in May and has contributed to major wildfires<\/a><\/span>, prolonged drought<\/a><\/span> and new national temperature records<\/a><\/span> across the region, as well as thousands of projected heat-related deaths.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Globally<\/a><\/span>, so far this is the third-hottest year, behind 2024<\/a><\/span> and 2025, climate statistics<\/a><\/span> show. But 2026 still has time to catch up. Thanks to the one-two punch of accelerated human-caused global warming<\/a><\/span> and a supersized El Ni\u00f1o<\/a><\/span>, a periodic warming of parts of the Pacific that leads to temperature variations around the globe, there\u2019s an increasing chance that by the end of the year, 2026 could become the hottest year on record, beating out 2024 \u2014 or at least come close, scientists said.<\/p>\n Last month saw the highest average sea surface temperature ever recorded for July across the extra-polar oceans, or the oceans free of seasonal sea ice, Copernicus said. <\/p>\n