The CNR: ‘The summer of 2026 is the hottest in Italia since 1950’

The summer of 2026 was the hottest in Italia since 1950 and surpassed the summer of 2003, which had previously been considered a record. This is according to the Institute for Bioeconomics of the National Research Council (CNR-IBE), which analysed temperatures recorded since 1950 in the ERA5 Land database of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).

It therefore appears that in the summer of 2026, the average temperature across the whole country was 24.3°C at a height of two metres above ground level, compared with the average of 23.6°C in the summer of 2003, again across the whole country and at a height of two metres above ground level, said Lorenzo Arcidiaco, of the CNR-IBE.

“The average temperature of 25.6 degrees Celsius recorded in August 2026 exceeds the previous records of 24.6°C set in 2024 and 24°C in August 2017,” says CNR-IBE researcher Lorenzo Arcidiaco. “The data,” he adds, “suggest that 2026 may end up being the hottest year since 1950. The heat maps, which show a monthly ranking of average temperatures from that year to the present, reveal for the first time that July and August were consecutively the hottest on record. ‘This year, as early as spring, a record average temperature for the season had already been reached – 12.1 degrees at two metres above ground level – matching that recorded in 2024, the hottest year on record since 1950,’ continues the CNR-IBE researcher. ‘Between January and August,’ explains the CNR, ‘the proportion of the national territory with temperature anomalies of more than one degree has also risen to around 70 per cent; and the proportion of the national territory with anomalies of more than two degrees stands at around 40 per cent.’

“The areas exposed to temperature anomalies are very significant, with a concentration in the north-western lowlands and the Apennines,” Arcidiaco adds. “For the most part, these are cultivated areas which, when exposed to higher temperatures and, in some areas, a period of drought, mean that the primary sector is the hardest hit.” “This is confirmed,” explains the CNR, “by analyses of GSOD (Global Summary of the Day) and Ogimet data (based predominantly on NOAA data) for Rome, Florence and Turin, which in June, July and August 2026 were all three hit on several occasions by heatwaves, i.e. periods in which maximum temperatures exceeded the 90th percentile for at least six consecutive days (see Charts: Monthly distribution of heatwaves).’