Indonesia's worst fire season in more than a decade is continuing into October, with peatland and agricultural fires blanketing Borneo and Sumatra in smoke. Satellite monitoring has recorded more than 23,000 fire hotspots this year, and the national weather agency BMKG says fire activity has already passed 2015 levels. More than 170,000 respiratory cases have been reported and about 12.5 million people have been exposed to polluted air, with haze reaching Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. Forecasters expect dry conditions to last into November, so the smoke could worsen before the monsoon arrives.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service reported on October 2 that summer 2026 was the hottest ever recorded in Western Europe. The average temperature reached 21.7C, which is 2.5C above the 1991-2020 average and higher than the previous record set in 2003. Across the whole continent it was the third warmest summer on record. A record 52% of Europe faced very intense heat stress at the end of the season. River flows hit lows that slowed commercial navigation, and crop yields fell.
Switzerland's glaciers lost 5.5% of their ice volume in 2026, the second-biggest yearly drop on record, according to the GLAMOS monitoring network. A winter with too little snow and record summer temperatures drove the melt. Average ice thickness fell by 2.5 to 4 metres, and some glacier tongues shrank by up to 10 metres. The Allalin, Clariden, Rhone and Aletsch glaciers recorded their biggest melts ever. Over the past five years, Swiss glaciers have lost almost a fifth of their ice. Switzerland feeds the Rhine, Rhone, Po and Danube rivers, so the losses affect water supplies, farming and hydropower.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced C$1.2 billion in funding to protect oceans, as several large energy and port projects move forward. The money is aimed at marine conservation, coastal protection and research. Environmental groups welcomed the pledge but asked how it will be enforced alongside new industrial approvals. Critics say the government risks creating areas where development outweighs protection, and they want clearer rules and monitoring.
Switzerland's glaciers shed more than 5.5 percent of their ice this year, according to the country's monitoring body, after a winter drought gave way to relentless summer heat waves. Half of Europe faced very strong heat stress during the summer. Nepal plans to drain four glacial lakes after deadly floods, and sunken Nazi warships are resurfacing as Europe's drought deepens. Researchers also proposed a new way to estimate the pollution and health costs of clusters of data centres.
Authorities declared a flood disaster zone across all 50 districts of Bangkok after days of heavy rain overwhelmed the capital's drainage system. Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said almost 300 millimetres, about 11.8 inches, had fallen since Thursday afternoon. Roads were submerged, residents near the canal network were told to move belongings upstairs, and the rail authority opened free park-and-ride spaces until 2 October. More than 700,000 people have been affected and at least two deaths confirmed. The government said the situation had stabilised, with draining expected to take two to three days.
The long dry spell across the south-western United States may last longer than current climate models suggest, according to new research covered in the 1 October issue of Science News. The work, co-authored by Victoria Todd of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, examined how past droughts ended and how that compares with the present event. The Colorado River basin faces cuts of up to 40% for California, Arizona and Nevada under a ten-year federal blueprint, and the April 2026 Arizona water supply outlook showed another weak snowpack year.
El Nino conditions have strengthened in the central Pacific. Weekly relative Oceanic Nino Index values reached 2C on 14 September, meeting the threshold for a very strong event, and daily sea surface temperature anomalies in the Nino 3.4 region hit 3C on 15 September, only the second time since records began in 1950. NOAA puts the chance of historic strength between October and December at about 75%. The event is cited as the main driver of a below-average Atlantic hurricane season forecast, and it makes a record hot year likely.
A UN report ahead of this year's climate talks says current policies put the world on track for at least 1.8C of warming, beyond the 1.5C goal of the Paris Agreement. Officials now frame the goal as limit overshoot, peak, decline — accept that the limit will be breached, then bend emissions down hard. Three COP summits land in one autumn: the desertification meeting already finished, the biodiversity conference in Armenia in October, and COP31 in Antalya, Turkey, from 9 to 20 November, with Australia leading negotiations. 2026 brought deadly Himalayan floods, European wildfires and heat, and one of the hottest summers recorded.
Extreme heat driven by this year's super El Nino could cause as many as 451,000 excess deaths worldwide between June 2026 and February 2027, researchers at the University of Chicago's Climate Impact Lab estimated, according to Reuters. The figure lands as heat, wildfires and drought hit several regions at once. The European climate service Copernicus found August was the hottest month on record. Scientists say El Nino conditions this strong are rare, and the coming months will test heat action plans, cooling centres and early warning systems. Britain pledged 331 million pounds for climate and biodiversity risks.