The numbers are in, and they are alarming. According to the federal government’s own scientists, the first half of 2026 was the third-warmest start to any year on record. Every one of the first six months landed among the five warmest ever measured for that month, and June brought the hottest ocean temperatures ever recorded for the month.
You could be forgiven for not knowing any of this. That is the point. As the planet posts one record after another, the Trump administration has quietly stripped these findings of the visibility they once had, burying the reports where few people will ever see them.
Our colleagues at the Sun Day Campaign have documented exactly how this is happening. Because this story deserves the widest possible audience, we are reproducing their news advisory in full below.
Reproduced In Full: Sun Day Campaign News Advisory & Analysis (July 17, 2026)
SUN DAY CAMPAIGN
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News Advisory & Analysis
YEAR-TO-DATE, GLOBAL TEMPERATURES ARE THIRD HIGHEST ON RECORD
EACH OF THE FIRST SIX MONTHS OF 2026 AMONG THE TOP FIVE WARMEST
BUT AS GLOBAL TEMPERATURES SOAR, NOAA SHROUDS ITS MONTHLY CLIMATE CHANGE DATA
For Release: Friday, July 17, 2026
Contact: Ken Bossong, 301-588-4741
Washington DC. Monthly data released by the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reveal that during the first half of 2026 the global surface temperature was third highest on record. In June alone, it was the second-highest recorded while global ocean temperatures were the highest on record for the month.
Of the first six months of 2026, two (January and February) were the fifth-warmest on record; one (April) was the fourth warmest; and the other three (March, May, June) were each the second warmest. Most, if not all, of the earth’s warmest monthly temperatures have been recorded during the past decade.
However, if you were not aware of this alarming trend, don’t blame yourself. Since the beginning of the Trump Administration, NOAA has kept its monthly climate change data under-reported, if not well-hidden.
Up through the end of President Joe Biden’s tenure in the White House, NOAA’s climate reports were the lead headline story on the agency’s web page each month and would remain there for multiple days, if not longer, thereby enabling wide coverage by print, broadcast, and social media.
No longer.
Publication of climate data has now become the responsibility of NCEI which posts the information without fanfare. It can be found if one knows when to look and where to research. But it requires some effort, underscoring the greatly diminished priority given by the Trump Administration to the issue and its apparent desire to pretend that global warming is not happening.
Below, the SUN DAY Campaign has compiled NCEI’s postings regarding its “Global Climate Reports” issued during the past six months. For comparison, these are followed by the last three NOAA news releases for the monthly “Global Climate Reports” published by the Biden Administration.
Trump/NCEI “Global Climate Reports” for 2026:
Earth Experienced Its Fifth-Warmest January on Record:
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, February 11, 2026
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/global-climate-202601
January 2026 ranked as the fifth-warmest January in NOAA’s 177-year record, with a global surface temperature 2.02°F (1.12°C) higher than the 20th-century baseline. All 10 of the warmest Januarys on record have occurred since 2007, with the most recent five years (2022–26) among the top 10.
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February 2026 Was the Fifth-Warmest on Record:
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, March 11, 2026
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/monthly-report/global/202602
In February 2026, the global surface temperature was 1.18°C (2.12°F) above the 20th-century average, ranking as the fifth-warmest February in the 177-year record. The 10 warmest Februarys on record have all occurred since 2016. This month also marked the 47th-consecutive February with above-average temperatures.
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March 2026 Tied for Second-Warmest Globally:
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, April 9, 2026
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/global-climate-202603
March 2026 had a surface temperature 2.36°F (1.31°C) above the 20th-century average, tying with 2024 as the second-warmest March on record. Only March 2025 was warmer by just 0.02°F (0.01°C). All March global temperature departures ranking in the top 10 during the period 1850–2026 have occurred since 2015. This month marked the 50th-consecutive March with a global temperature departure above the 20th-century average. The last March to rank below the 1901–2000 mean occurred in 1976.
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April 2026 Ranks as the Fourth-Warmest on Record Globally:
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, May 11, 2026
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/global-climate-202604
April 2026 ranked as the fourth-warmest April on record, trailing only 2024, 2025 and 2020, with a global surface temperature 2.02°F (1.12°C) above the 20th-century average. Notably, all 10 of the warmest Aprils in the 1850–2026 record have occurred since 2016. This month also marked the 50th-consecutive April with a global temperature departure above the 20th-century average; the most recent below-average April occurred in 1976. During April 2026, above-average temperatures spanned most global land and ocean surfaces. Globally, ocean temperatures ranked second-warmest for the month, while land temperatures came in at seventh-warmest.
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May 2026 Was the World’s Second-Warmest May on Record:
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, June 10, 2026
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/global-climate-202605
May 2026 ranked as the second-warmest May on record, trailing only 2024, with a global surface temperature 1.93°F (1.07°C) above the 20th-century average. Notably, all 10 of the warmest Mays in the 1850–2026 record have occurred since 2016. This month also marked the 50th-consecutive May with a global temperature departure above the 20th-century average; the most recent below-average May occurred in 1976. Globally, ocean temperatures ranked second warmest for the month, while land temperatures came in at fifth warmest.
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Earth Experiences Its Second-Warmest June on Record:
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, July 9, 2026
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/global-climate-202606
The globe had its second-warmest June on record, driven by global ocean surface temperatures reaching an all-time high for the month. Global surface temperatures in June 2026 were 1.96°F (1.09°C) above the 20th-century average, the second-warmest June on record, trailing only 2024. Notably, all 10 of the warmest Junes in the 1850–2026 record have occurred since 2015. This month also marked the 50th-consecutive June with a global temperature departure above the 20th-century average; the most recent below-average globally-averaged June temperature occurred in 1976. Global ocean temperatures were the highest on record for the month, while global land temperatures came in at fourth highest on record. Looking at the year-to-date, the January–June global surface temperature was third highest on record. It is very likely that 2026 will rank among the five-warmest years on record.
Biden/NOAA Last Three News Releases re. the “Global Climate Reports”:
Planet Saw Its 2nd-Warmest October in 175-year Record:
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, November 13, 2024
https://www.noaa.gov/news/planet-saw-its-2nd-warmest-october-in-175-year-record
2024 is on pace to be world’s warmest year on record, with October 2024 ranking as the second-warmest October in NOAA’s 175-year global climate record. The average global temperature for October was 2.38 degrees F (1.32 degrees C) above the 20th-century average of 57.2 degrees F (14.0 degrees C). The YTD global surface temperature was 2.30 degrees F (1.28 degrees C) above the 20th-century average, making it the warmest such period on record. There is now a greater than 99% chance that 2024 will rank as the world’s warmest year on record.
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Earth Saw Its Second-Warmest November on Record:
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, December 12, 2024
https://www.noaa.gov/news/earth-saw-its-2nd-warmest-november-on-record
November 2024 was the planet’s second-warmest November in NOAA’s 175-year global climate record, just 0.14 of a degree F (0.08 of a degree C) behind the record warmth of November 2023. The average global land and ocean surface temperature for November 2024 was 2.41 degrees F (1.34 degrees C) above the 20th-century average of 55.2 degrees F (12.9 degrees C). The year-to-date global land and ocean surface temperature was 2.30 degrees F (1.28 degrees C) above the 20th-century average, ranking as the warmest such YTD on record. Every continent had its warmest such YTD period on record, except for Asia, which had its second warmest. There is now a greater than 99% chance that 2024 will rank as Earth’s warmest year on record.
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January Temperature Marks a New Global Milestone (Warmest January on Record):
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, February 12, 2025
https://www.noaa.gov/news/january-temperature-marks-new-global-milestone
The average global land and ocean surface temperature last month was 2.39 degrees F (1.33 degrees C) above the 20th-century average, ranking as the warmest January in the 176-year global climate record. This was 0.05 of a degree F (0.03 of a degree C) above the previous record-warm January of 2024. The new January global record is particularly notable for having occurred during a La Nina episode, the cold phase of the El Nino Southern Oscillation.
The SUN DAY Campaign is a non-profit research and educational organization founded in 1992 to support a rapid transition to 100% reliance on sustainable energy technologies as a cost-effective alternative to nuclear power and fossil fuels and as a solution to climate change.
This Is Not An Isolated Case
Burying the monthly temperature reports is one tactic in a much broader pattern. Over the past year and a half, the administration has moved to shut down, defund, and hide the very tools Americans use to understand a changing climate. Three examples stand out.
The billion-dollar disaster database, gone. In May 2025, NOAA retired its Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters database, the definitive 45-year record of the country’s costliest hurricanes, floods, and wildfires, with no updates beyond 2024. As CNN reported, the database drew on non-public insurance data that no private company can easily replicate, which means the public now has no authoritative way to track what extreme weather is costing us. That hits the Southeast especially hard, a region that absorbs more billion-dollar disasters than almost anywhere else in the country.
The National Climate Assessment, taken offline. On June 30, 2025, the government took down globalchange.gov, the website hosting every past National Climate Assessment, the most authoritative report on how climate change affects each region of the United States. The assessments are required by law under the Global Change Research Act of 1990, yet the administration had already canceled the contract and dismissed the scientists working on the next edition. As the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law documented, the reports vanished with no explanation and no referral to another source. Teachers, city planners, and farmers who relied on that tool were simply cut off.
Corporate emissions reporting, on the chopping block. In September 2025, the EPA proposed ending the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, the program that requires roughly 8,000 large facilities to disclose their emissions using a single, standardized method. According to a legal analysis from Harvard’s Environmental and Energy Law Program, those facilities account for something like 85 to 90 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and the program has served as the bedrock of emissions data for governments, researchers, and communities alike. If the proposal is finalized, the public could lose reliable, comparable data on corporate climate pollution for nearly a decade, leaving watchdogs to rely on whatever polluters choose to disclose on their own.
Hiding The Thermometer Will Not Cool The Planet
There is a common thread here. When a government stops measuring a problem, stops publishing the results, or hides them where no one will look, it is not solving the problem. It is trying to make the problem politically invisible.
The heat is real whether or not the reports make the front page. The floods still come, the insurance bills still climb, and the ocean still sets records. Suppressing the data does not protect a single family from the next storm. It only makes it harder for communities to see what is coming and prepare for it.
The minions of the exploitative fossil fuel industry like to call concern for climate disruption an extremist position. Yet instead of debating the facts in the open, they are working to hide the very data people need to make informed decisions. That alone should tell you which side is afraid of the evidence.
Science and public information are not partisan. For decades, under presidents of both parties, these datasets have helped Americans plan, build, insure, and protect what they love. Dismantling them serves no one except those who profit from the pollution driving the crisis. A government confident in its policies does not need to switch off the instruments.
We owe a debt to organizations like the Sun Day Campaign, and to the scientists and volunteers now racing to archive and rebuild these tools before they disappear for good. The answer to a warming world is more information, sharper science, and greater transparency, not less. The Southeast, and the country, deserve leaders who will face the data honestly rather than pretend it away.
Join the Clean Energy Generation. The best response to a government looking away is a public that refuses to. Sign on to the Clean Energy Generation to stay informed and take action on the issues that matter most to you.
