Key facts
- The WMO report draws on nine data sets and ranks each of the past 12 years, including 2026, among the 12 warmest since records began around 1850.
- Ocean temperatures continued to rise in 2026 from 2025 all-time highs, the UN report said.
- Global mean sea levels reached a record in 2026 as glaciers and ice sheets melted and seawater expanded as it warmed, the report said.
- WMO Head of Climate Information John Kennedy said heat trapped by greenhouse gases is showing up in the ocean, atmosphere, ice melt and rising sea levels.
A World Meteorological Organization report published on November 9, 2026, said 2026 is on track to be one of the four hottest years on record, a streak driven by a powerful El Nino and extending a warming run of more than a decade.
Between January and September 2026, the global average temperature was 1.47 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average and could rise further because of a major El Nino, the report showed. The WMO report, which encompasses nine data sets, ranked each of the past 12 years, including 2026, among the 12 warmest since records began around 1850.
"Every indicator here is telling the same story. We're seeing the heat trapped by greenhouse gasses is showing up in the ocean, in the atmosphere, in the melting of ice and the rising of sea levels," WMO Head of Climate Information John Kennedy told reporters in Geneva ahead of the conference.
The EU's Copernicus climate service already said 2026 was all but certain to become the second calendar year after 2024 to exceed the threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels set in the 2015 Paris Agreement. The planet is increasingly accumulating heat, the report said, with ocean temperatures continuing to rise in 2026 from 2025 all-time highs. Global mean sea levels also reached a record in 2026 as glaciers and ice sheets melt and seawater expands as it heats, the report said.
Countries are preparing to meet in Turkey from November 9 to 20 for the next round of climate talks, and the WMO report provides the latest available data to inform their discussions.