below are extracts from NOOA's global climate report for January as reported by meteorologist Jeff Masters in Yale Climate Connections.
NOAA/JEFF MASTERS
"The first month of 2025 was Earth’s warmest January in analyses of global weather data going back to 1850, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, or NCEI, reported Feb. 12. NASA also rated January 2025 as the warmest January on record, 1.59 degrees Celsius (2.86 °F) above the 1880-1899 period, which is its best estimate for when preindustrial temperatures occurred. This beat the previous record from January 2024 by 0.12 degrees Celsius (0.22 °F).
"The European Copernicus Climate Change Service and Berkeley Earth also rated January 2025 as the warmest January on record.
"Global land areas had their warmest January on record in 2025, and global oceans had their second-warmest January, according to NOAA. Oceana had its second-warmest January; Europe and Asia had their third-warmest January; South America, its fourth-warmest; Africa its fifth-warmest; and North America, its 10th-warmest.
"The contiguous U.S. had below-average temperatures in January, recording it’s coldest January since 1988, and its coldest month relative to average since December 2000."
"An unexpected record
"The January record was surprising since it beat the previous record set just last year. At that point, a strong El Niño event was in full force, boosting global temperatures. But in January 2025, cooler than average temperatures were present in the Eastern Pacific, thanks to what NOAA classified as a weak La Niña event.
"It is very unusual to beat a monthly temperature record during a La Niña event. Climatologist Brian Bretschneider (see skeet below) noted that the three previous warmest Januarys all occurred during El Niño events when warm ocean waters in the Eastern Pacific helped bump global temperature higher by about 0.2 degree Celsius.
"However, the current La Niña event is weak. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology does not recognize it, saying that we are currently in ENSO-neutral conditions, despite changes in sea surface temperature patterns consistent with a developing La Niña.
" (Keep in mind that the bureau uses a more stringent threshold for La Niña conditions than NOAA does. Sea surface temperatures must be at least 0.8 degree Celsius below the seasonal average in the key Niño3.4 region of the eastern tropical Pacific, versus the 0.5-degree threshold used by NOAA.)
"One reason for the record January 2025 warmth was that Earth’s surface (in regions where clouds were not present) was unusually non-reflective, setting a record for the lowest albedo (reflectivity) on record (see skeet below). This allowed the surface to absorb more solar energy than usual, helping drive the record warmth."
