The year 2025 has started with a record-breaking January, marking the warmest January on record, continuing the trend of extreme global temperatures despite the shift to the cooler La Niña weather pattern.
Key Facts
- January 2025 continued the pattern of unusually high global temperatures, with the average temperature being over 1.5°C higher than pre-industrial levels in 18 of the last 19 months, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).
- The global temperature for January was 1.75°C higher than pre-industrial levels.
- This warm streak continues even as the world shifts from the previous warming El Niño phase, which contributed to making 2024 the hottest year on record, to the cooling La Niña phase. La Niña is characterized by the cooling of equatorial Pacific waters, typically limiting the global temperature rise.
Important Quote
“The fact that we are still seeing record temperatures outside the influence of El Niño is a bit surprising,” said Samantha Burgess, strategy manager at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.
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Key Story
El Niño peaked more than a year ago, and Copernicus estimates that La Niña has not yet fully developed, placing the world in a neutral state between the two phases.
Despite La Niña’s cooling effect, Burgess notes that it might not be enough to temporarily curb global temperatures. Other factors contributing to the heat include extreme temperatures in other ocean basins and, most importantly, the ongoing greenhouse gas emissions, which are the primary driver of global warming.
“The biggest factor contributing to climate warming is the burning of fossil fuels,” says Burgess.
Scientists from Berkeley Earth have projected that 2025 is likely to be the third warmest year on record, following 2024 and 2023. Although La Niña may cause some cooling, uncertainty remains about how it will develop.
Globally, average sea surface temperatures for January 2025 were the second highest ever recorded for the month, only slightly surpassed by January 2024.
