January 2025 was the warmest first month of the year globally recorded since the period 1991-2020.
This is according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) monthly bulletin for January 2025.
The average global surface temperature was 13.23ºC.
This is 0.79ºC above the climatological average for January for the period 1991-2020.
The Arctic Region recorded its lowest sea ice extent on record for January.
Compared to the 1850-1900 average, designated as the pre-industrial reference period, January 2025 was 1.75ºC warmer than the average for the month.
The World Meteorological Organization said January 2025 was the 18th month in a 19-month period with a global-average surface air temperature exceeding 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels.
Sea surface temperatures were lower than average over the central equatorial Pacific but remained close to or above average in the eastern equatorial Pacific, suggesting a possible slowdown or stalling in the transition from El Niño towards La Niña conditions.
The twelve-month period February 2024-January 2025 was 0.73ºC above the 1991-2020 average and 1.61ºC above the pre-industrial average.
For Europe, the surface air temperature was 1.80ºC.
This equates to about 2.51ºC higher, than the 1991-2020 average for January,making it the second warmest January that was only 0.13ºC below January 2020 and 0.10ºC warmer than January 2007, the third warmest on record.
Western Russia and Canada saw the largest warm anomalies while the United Kingdom, Iceland, Eastern United States and the Russian far East had below average temperatures.
Valencia, in Spain, recorded its warmest temperature for the month with 26.9ºC on 27 January, breaking a 150-year record.
The hydrological variables data show predominantly wetter-than-average conditions during January for most of western Europe and other regions, including southern Ireland and UK, France, the western Iberian Peninsula and parts of Italy. Storms Éowyn Herminia and Ivo caused heavy precipitation and flooding episodes in many regions.
Globally January 2025 was much below the 1991-2020 average in terms of surface air relative humidity, following a declining trend over the last 40 years.