World hits record heat in January 2025

Last month was the world's warmest January on record, continuing a streak of extreme global temperatures despite expectations that cooler La Nina conditions might quell a streak of record-breaking global temperatures, European Union (EU) scientists said on Thursday.

January extended a run of extraordinary heat, in which 18 of the last 19 months saw an average global temperature of more than 1.5˚C above pre-industrial times, the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said in a monthly bulletin.

That was despite the world shifting from the El Nino warming pattern - which helped make 2024 the world's warmest year on record - and turning towards its cooler La Niña counterpart, which involves the cooling of equatorial Pacific waters, and can curb global temperatures.

The global average temperature in January was 1.75˚C higher than in pre-industrial times.

Globally, average sea surface temperatures in January were the second-highest on record for the month, exceeded only by January 2024.

WAM