Following the warmest June of record for the Arctic, July was close behind. While June was notably dry across Arctic land areas, July precipitation was almost exactly normal.
This is the fourth (and final) post on July 2026 climate related conditions around the Arctic. The wildfire in July is here, the July sea ice summary here and the Alaska-specific climate recap (updated with ERA5 graphics) here. Hopefully more posts but well defined topics makes it easier to find specific information.
Temperatures
July was a very warm month for the Arctic. More than 70 percent of the Arctic (lands and seas north of 60°N) were warmer than normal, including 12 percent with a “top three warmest July. In the vast Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia of central Siberia, this warmest July since 1969 and Nunavut, Canada (except for the far north) was also very warm relative to the 1991-2020 normal. Cooler than normal areas included northernmost Nunavut, Canada, Alaska (coolest July since 2011), Chukotka, Russia and parts of the Nordic Arctic as well as the Arctic Ocean north of Svalbard. However, less than three percent of the Arctic had a “top three'“ coolest July. Note that in mid-summer, temperatures over the Arctic ice pack are almost always close to freezing as heating goes into melting snow and ice, and so air temperatures are always “close to normal”.
Fig. 1 July 2026 average temperature departure from the 1991-2020 baseline average. Data from ERA5 courtesy of ECMWF/Copernicus.
For the Arctic overall, the average temperature in July was the third highest in the ERA5 reanalysis since 1950. The Arctic lands average temperature in July was second highest since 1950, with only 2023 warmer.
Fig. 2 July average surface temperature 60° to 90°N (lands and seas) each year 1950 to 2026. Time varying average estimated via piece-wise linear regression. Data from ERA5 courtesy of ECMWF/Copernicus.
The highest temperatures in July in the Arctic occurred in Russia (circled in Fig 3). On July 9 and 10 in the middle Lena River valley in eastern Siberia, daily high temperatures widely topped 35C (95F), including Pokrovskaja 37.0C (99F), Yakutsk 35.9C (97F) and Namsty at 37.7C (100F). In the European Arctic, temperatures also reached 35C late in the month in the Komi Republic, including 35.1C (95F) at Troitsko-Pechorsk and 35.4C (96C) on the 28th. Temperatures were overall not quite so high in the North American Arctic, though Lindberg Landing, Northwest Territories, in the Dehcho region, reported 35.0 (95F) on the 21st.
Fig. 3 July 2026 highest hourly temperature in the AgERA5 reanalysis. Data courtesy of ECMWF/Copernicus.
Sea surface temperatures
Sea surface temperatures (SSTs) were generally warmer than the 1991-2020 baseline average outside of ice covered areas (Fig. 4), with Hudson Bay and the Greenland Sea both having the second highest July average in the satellite era (since 1979). Baffin Bay SSTs were higher that in July 2025, as were SSTs in the northern Bering Sea. In contrast, Kara and Norwegian Seas SSTs were lower than last July.
Fig. 4 July 2026 average sea surface temperature departure from the 1991-2020 baseline normal. Areas with July average sea ice concentration greater than 15 percent in National Snow and Ice Data Center analysis are shown with hatching. OISSTv2.1 data courtesy NOAA/PSL/ESRL. Sea ice concentration data courtesy NSIDC.
Precipitation
Relative to normal, precipitation is always more variable spatially than temperatures, and in July that variability was even more dramatic than usual (Fig. 5). Far northern and northwest Canadian Arctic had well above normal precipitation while the eastern Canadian was much drier than normal. Greenland, Iceland and the Nordic Arctic all had areas significantly above and below normal, as did the Asian Arctic.
Fig. 5 July 2026 total precipitation categories based on percentiles of the 1991-2020 reference period. Data from ERA5 courtesy of ECMWF/Copernicus.
The northern-most Arctic (poleward of 80°N) had the second highest precipitation (and snowfall) for July since 1950, while for Arctic as a whole (poleward of 60°N), average precipitation (rain plus the water content of any snow) was very close to the 1991-2020 baseline.