January 2025 now holds the record for the warmest January in history since global temperature records began. On average, the temperature in January 2025 was 1.75°C higher than the pre-industrial average. It broke the record set by January 2024, which was 1.7°C warmer than the pre-industrial average.
This higher temperature record surprised scientists who had predicted a colder January due to the La Niña phenomenon. Why the warmer temperature anomaly occurred was still unknown to scientists at the time of writing.
The year 2024 was the warmest year since temperatures began to be recorded, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service. The average global temperature last year was 15.1 °C and was the first time the average temperature was 1.5°C warmer than the pre-industrial average (1850-1900) on Earth. It is also 0.12 °C warmer than 2023, which was previously the year with the highest average temperature in history.