"'January 2026 delivered a stark reminder that the climate system can sometimes simultaneously deliver very cold weather in one region, and extreme heat in another,' said Samantha Burgess, Strategic Lead for Climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). 'While human activities continue to drive long-term warming, these recent events highlight that resilience and adaptation to increasing extremes are key to prepare society for heightened climate risk in the future.'"
"Worldwide, January was the fifth-warmest on record, with an average surface air temperature of 12.95°C. That's 0.51°C above the 1991-2020 average, and 1.47°C above pre-industrial temperatures. Europe was particularly chilly, with an average temperature of just -2.34°C, which is 1.63°C below the 1991-2020 average. 'Widespread cold conditions occurred across Fennoscandia, the Baltic States, eastern Europe, Siberia, and the central and eastern United States,' CS3 explained."
January 2026 produced simultaneous regional extremes: a meandering polar jet stream drove severe cold waves in the Northern Hemisphere, spilling icy air into Europe and North America and producing Europe's coldest January since 2010 with an average of -2.34°C. The Southern Hemisphere recorded exceptional heat that triggered wildfires in Australia, Chile, and Patagonia and caused flooding in South Africa and Mozambique. Global average surface air temperature for January reached 12.95°C, 0.51°C above the 1991-2020 average and 1.47°C above pre-industrial levels. The Arctic showed the largest warmer-than-average anomalies, notably across the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and Greenland.
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