Scientists have recorded the highest temperature ever measured in the world’s oceans, as Climate Change combines with a powerful El Nino in the tropical Pacific.The global average sea-surface temperature hit a record 21.1 degrees Celsius (70 Fahrenheit) on August 22, according to Europe’s Earth observation agency Copernicus, which has been tracking the metric daily since 1979. The previous single-day record of 21.09 degrees was measured in March 2024.“El Nino is adding heat to the system, but it is doing so on top of decades of human-driven warming,” said Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at Copernicus’ European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.
SRCSouth China Morning Post
LANGEN
LEANCenter-Right
WORDS102
ENT7
TUE · 2026-08-25 · 02:30 GMTBRIEF NSR-2026-0825-105587
NSR-2026-0825-105587News Report·EN·Environmental
Hottest ocean temperature recorded as ‘super’ El Nino forms
Europe's Earth observation agency, Copernicus, recorded the highest global average sea-surface temperature ever on August 22, reaching 21.1 degrees Celsius (70 Fahrenheit). This record surpasses the previous high of 21.09 degrees measured in March 2024.
BloombergSouth China Morning PostFiled 2026-08-25 · 02:30 GMTLean · Center-RightRead · 1 min
South China Morning PostFIG 01
Reading time
1min
Word count
102words
Sources cited
1cited
Entities identified
7entities
Quality score
100%
§ 01
Briefing Summary
AI-generatedNEWSAR · AI
Europe's Earth observation agency, Copernicus, recorded the highest global average sea-surface temperature ever on August 22, reaching 21.1 degrees Celsius (70 Fahrenheit). This record surpasses the previous high of 21.09 degrees measured in March 2024. Scientists attribute this unprecedented heat to the combination of a powerful El Nino forming in the tropical Pacific and ongoing human-driven global warming. Samantha Burgess of Copernicus' European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts explained that El Nino is amplifying the existing heat in the ocean system. Copernicus has been tracking daily global average sea-surface temperatures since 1979.
Confidence 0.85Sources 1Claims 4Entities 7
§ 02
Article analysis
Model · rule-basedFraming
Environmental
Public Health
Tone
Mixed Tone
AI-assessed
CalmNeutralAlarmist
Factuality
0.90 / 1.00
Factual
LowHigh
Sources cited
1
Limited
FewMany
§ 03
Key claims
4 extracted01
El Nino is adding heat to the system, but it is doing so on top of decades of human-driven warming.
quoteSamantha Burgess
Confidence
1.00
02
Climate change is combining with a powerful El Nino in the tropical Pacific.
factual
Confidence
1.00
03
The global average sea-surface temperature hit a record 21.1 degrees Celsius (70 Fahrenheit) on August 22.
statisticCopernicus
Confidence
1.00
04
The highest temperature ever recorded in the world's oceans was measured.
factual
Confidence
1.00
§ 04
Full report
1 min read · 102 words§ 05
Entities
7 identifiedKey playerOppositionContextPositiveNeutralNegative
Organizations2
Events1
§ 06
Keywords & salience
8 termsel nino
1.00
climate change
1.00
ocean temperature
1.00
sea-surface temperature
0.90
global warming
0.80
tropical pacific
0.70
copernicus
0.60
human-driven warming
0.50
§ 07
Topic connections
Interactive graph Network visualization showing 51 related topics
View Full Graph Person Organization Location Event|Click node to navigate|Edge numbers = shared articles