According to the European Union’s Earth Observation Programme, Copernicus Climate Change Service, January 2025 has set a record as the warmest January globally. The average temperature was 13.23°C, which is 1.75°C higher than the temperatures before industrialization. This is important because it is the 18th time in the last 19 months that global temperatures have been over 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Scientists warn that staying above this temperature makes life tougher for humans, as it is the lower limit of what countries agreed upon in the Paris Agreement.
Interestingly, these increased temperatures are happening even with a weather pattern called La Niña developing. Normally, La Niña brings cooler temperatures, but it hasn’t stopped the record heat. Samantha Burgess, from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, said, “January 2025 is another surprising month, continuing the record temperatures observed throughout the last two years.”
La Niña means the ocean in the Pacific Ocean is cooler, changing the way winds and rains behave. On the other hand, El Niño is the warm shift regarding this same ocean pattern. In India, El Niño can lead to hotter summers and a weaker monsoon, while La Niña usually brings stronger monsoons and more rain.
Looking at the recent heat, from February 2024 to January 2025, temperatures were 0.73°C higher than the 1991-2020 average and 1.61°C higher than the average from 1850-1900, which defines the pre-industrial level.
In Europe, January 2025 was particularly hot, averaging 1.80°C, which is 2.51°C higher than the average for January during 1991-2020. January 2020 was the only month that was hotter, by 2.64°C.
Some regions saw high temperatures like northeast Canada, Alaska, Siberia, southern South America, Africa, much of Australia, and Antarctica. However, places like the US and the eastern areas of Russia faced cooler temperatures in January. The Arabian Peninsula and Southeast Asia also had lower-than-average temperatures.
The average sea surface temperature for January 2025 was 20.78°C, making it the second warmest January on record, just 0.19°C below January 2024’s record. The sea was cooler in the central Pacific but warmer in the eastern Pacific, showing a pause in the La Niña transition. Many ocean areas are still warmer than average.
In the Arctic, there was a record low amount of sea ice in January, which was 6% below average. This is nearly tied with the low from January 2018. Sea ice was especially thin in eastern Canada and the northern Barents Sea. Antarctic sea ice was also below average, at 5% less than usual, but that’s not as unusual when compared to recent years.
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