January 2026 entered the top five warmest first months of the year globally. This is not surprising for Belarusians

Illustrative photo. Photo: Lookby.media

The world recorded the fifth warmest January in 2026 for the entire observation period. This was reported by the Copernicus Climate Change Service of the European Union's Earth observation program.

The average surface air temperature on the planet was 12.95°C. This is 0.51°C higher than the average for 1991–2020 and 1.47°C higher than the pre-industrial period (1850–1900).

Notably, January 2026 was only 0.28°C colder than the warmest January on record, which was observed in 2025.

Despite the overall warming, significant areas of the Northern Hemisphere, on the contrary, faced severe frosts in the second half of the month. Cold weather gripped North America, Europe, and Siberia due to changes in the polar jet stream, allowing Arctic air to penetrate mid-latitudes. As a result, Europe experienced its coldest January since 2010: the average temperature there was −2.34°C, significantly below the climatic norm.

At the same time, many other regions of the world experienced above-average temperatures, especially in the Arctic, western North America, southern South America, North Africa, Central Asia, Australia, and Antarctica.

January also stood out with contrasts in precipitation. Many parts of Western, Southern, and Eastern Europe experienced intense rainfall, causing floods and damage, including in the Iberian Peninsula, Italy, the Balkans, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. At the same time, Central and Northern Europe, as well as Scandinavia and Iceland, were drier than usual.

In the Southern Hemisphere, anomalous heat led to extreme phenomena. Large-scale wildfires erupted in Australia, Chile, and Patagonia, resulting in human casualties. Additionally, heavy rains in southern Africa at the end of the month caused severe floods, especially in Mozambique, which had dire consequences for the population.

Samantha Burgess, a representative of Copernicus, noted that January once again showed that the climate system can simultaneously bring severe frosts to one region and extreme heat to another. She emphasized that in the context of ongoing global warming, adaptation measures and increasing societal resilience to climate risks are particularly important.

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