Earth’s Hot Spots This Week: The 10 Hottest Places in the World

By Paul Harrison, Orbis Weather · Saturday, October 24, 2026 · Week of October 17-23, 2026

At a glance

The hottest airport readings of the week of October 17-23, 2026, reached about 111°F (44°C), at Rajkot in western India and Port Hedland in northwest Australia.

• Where the heat sat: three belts. The Saudi Gulf coast, the West African Sahel and Australia’s northwest each placed at least two stations in the top 10.
• Hottest official reading checked: Port Hedland Airport hit 43.6°C (110.5°F) on October 20, per the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.
• Cut-off for the list: 41°C (105.8°F). Five more stations reached 40°C (104°F).
• Not on the list: the Americas. The hottest stations checked there, Itaituba and Teresina in Brazil, peaked near 39°C (102°F).

Heat warnings come from national weather services; follow their advice in hot weather.

The 10 hottest places

Each station appears once, at its highest daily maximum of the week. Airport reports are rounded to whole degrees Celsius, so ties are common; the official Port Hedland figure is from the Bureau of Meteorology.

Just missing the list at 104°F (40°C): Kununurra and Uluru in Australia, Niamey in Niger, N’Djamena in Chad, and Bordj Badji Mokhtar in Algeria. Data: Iowa Environmental Mesonet daily airport summaries and Bureau of Meteorology, Port Hedland.

Where the heat was

Western India. Rajkot stayed between 40°C and 44°C (104°F and 111°F) on every day of the week. Nearby Ahmedabad peaked at 36°C (97°F), and Karachi in Pakistan reached 39°C (102°F) on October 22.

Saudi Gulf coast. Dammam, Dhahran and Al-Ahsa ran hottest early in the week, then eased. Dammam fell from 43°C (109°F) on October 17-18 to 36°C (97°F) on October 22. Basra in Iraq peaked at 39°C (102°F).

West African Sahel. The heat here was the most persistent. Gao in Mali reached at least 40°C (104°F) every day, and Niamey in Niger did so on five of seven days. Podor in northern Senegal warmed late in the week, reaching its peak on October 23.

Northwest Australia. Port Hedland recorded 41.3°C, 40.8°C, 42.0°C and 43.6°C on October 17-20, before dropping to 35.8°C (96.4°F) on October 21 (BoM). Alice Springs also cooled sharply that day, from 39°C to 28°C (102°F to 82°F). Kununurra stayed near 39-40°C (102-104°F) all week.

South America. Teresina in northeast Brazil held at 38-39°C (100-102°F) every day, while Cuiabá warmed to 38°C (100°F) by October 21.

What to watch next week

• The Sahel: heat there was steady all week, with no break in the station data. National services such as Mali-Météo and ANACIM in Senegal issue local forecasts.
• Northwest Australia: the October 21 cool change ended Port Hedland’s run of 40°C-plus days. The Bureau of Meteorology issues heatwave warnings.
• Western India: Rajkot logged 40°C or more on all seven days. The India Meteorological Department issues district forecasts and heat warnings.

About this list

The list ranks daily maximum temperatures from October 17 to 23, 2026, at airport weather stations in the hottest regions of each continent. Readings come from hourly airport reports (METARs) compiled by the Iowa Environmental Mesonet, checked against the Australian Bureau of Meteorology where possible. Hourly reports can miss the true peak between observations, and some stations do not report every day. Remote stations without airport reports are not covered, so the list shows the hottest places measured, not every hot spot on Earth.

Glossary

• Daily maximum: the highest air temperature recorded at a station in one day, measured in shade about 1.5-2 m (5-6.5 ft) above ground.
• METAR: the standard weather report airports issue, usually every hour.
• Sahel: the semi-arid belt south of the Sahara, from Senegal to Sudan.
• Synoptic station: a station that reports to the World Meteorological Organization at fixed times each day.

Frequently asked questions

What was the hottest place on Earth this week? Rajkot in India and Port Hedland in Australia shared the top at about 44°C (111°F) in airport reports. The Bureau of Meteorology’s official figure for Port Hedland was 43.6°C (110.5°F).

Why do other weekly lists give different answers? Each list uses a different set of stations and dates. Earthweek, using WMO synoptic stations, named Al Hafuf in Saudi Arabia, at 108°F (42°C), as the week’s hottest (Earthweek). That figure matches the Al-Ahsa (Hofuf) airport reading in this list.

Why is Australia so hot in October? October is spring in the Southern Hemisphere, and Australia’s northwest heats quickly before the wet season. Port Hedland passed 40°C (104°F) on four straight days this week.

Are the readings rounded? Yes. Airport reports give whole degrees Celsius, so 44°C appears as 111.2°F in the raw data. Official national records, such as the Bureau of Meteorology’s, give tenths of a degree.