2025 Set to Be Second Warmest Year on Record
Firefighters working in Spain in August
Pedro Pascual/Anadolu via Getty Images
This year is on track to become the second warmest year on record, following closely behind 2024. Various regions have witnessed unprecedented storms, wildfires, and high temperatures.
The mean temperature for 2025 currently stands at 1.48°C above the preindustrial average, as reported by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). This places it in a tie with 2023, securing the second spot after the record-breaking warmth of 2024, which exceeded preindustrial levels by 1.6°C.
Despite the cooling effects of the La Niña phase that followed the warming influence of El Niño in 2024, the continuous rise in fossil fuel emissions in 2025 indicates a sustained increase in global temperatures. This trend contributes to the occurrence of severe and devastating extreme weather events.
According to Samantha Burgess, a scientist at C3S, “The reality is that it’s the extreme events that impact people, impact society, impact our ecosystems, and we know that those extreme events increase in their frequency and in their severity in a warmer world. Storms get worse because the atmosphere holds more moisture.”
During the summer, climate change led to an additional 16,500 deaths due to heatwaves across Europe. In October, Hurricane Melissa, the strongest hurricane to ever hit Jamaica, resulted in over 80 fatalities and approximately $8.8 billion in damages. Studies by World Weather Attribution revealed that climate change intensified Melissa’s rainfall by 16% and wind speed by 7%.
In November, a series of cyclones and storms triggered landslides and flooding in several Asian countries, claiming the lives of more than 1600 individuals.
Arctic sea ice extent is currently at its lowest recorded levels for this time of the year, with Antarctic sea ice also below normal.
The three-year temperature average is projected to surpass 1.5°C above preindustrial levels for the first time. Scientists anticipate that this warming trajectory will exceed the long-term average of 1.5°C by 2029, surpassing the targets set in the Paris Agreement.
“There’s no magical cliff at 1.5 degrees, but we know that extreme events will get worse … as we exceed 1.5 degrees,” Burgess explains. “The proximity of tipping point thresholds gets closer as well.”
An October report warned that the irreversible die-off of tropical coral reefs has already been reached, with the looming risk of crossing tipping points for Amazon rainforest dieback, collapse of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets, and Antarctic sea ice.
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