April saw the second-highest ocean temperatures on record

Brussels – April 2026 was, after April 2024, the month with the second-highest surface temperatures ever recorded in the extrapolar oceans (i.e. excluding the Arctic and Antarctic regions). Severe marine heatwaves occurred across much of the tropical Pacific. Furthermore, it was the third-warmest April globally. This is the picture that emerges from data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), managed by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. (ECMWF). The average surface air temperature was 14.89 degrees Celsius, 0.52 degrees higher than the 1991–2020 average for the same period. The warmest April on record was in 2024, whilst the second warmest was in 2025. 

These findings “add to the clear evidence of persistent global warming. Sea surface temperatures have approached record levels – commented Samantha Burgess, climate strategy lead at the ECMWF – and Arctic sea ice has remained well below average”. According to Copernicus data, sea ice extent was 5 per cent below average in the Arctic and 10 per cent below average in the Antarctic.

In the extrapolar oceans, the average daily sea surface temperature is gradually approaching the 2024 record levels. According to the European Centre, this observation reflects the transition from ENSO conditions (El Niño-Southern Oscillation) – considered neutral – to stronger conditions, known as El Niño, now forecast for the coming months.

“Europe has seen stark contrasts in terms of temperatures and rainfall, all signs of a climate increasingly characterised by extreme weather events,” Burgess said. Last month, in fact, much of south-western Europe experienced well above-average temperatures, and in Spain, this was the warmest April on record. In Eastern Europe, however, temperatures were below average. 

Extreme weather events have not been confined to Europe. The C3S reports tropical cyclones in the Pacific and flooding in West Asia, South-Central Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and Iran. Meanwhile, several droughts have been recorded in Southern Africa.