Last month was the world’s warmest January on record, raising further questions about the pace of climate change, scientists say.
January 2025 had been expected to be slightly cooler than January 2024 because of a shift away from a natural weather pattern in the Pacific known as El Niño.
But instead, last month broke the January 2024 record by nearly 0.1°C, according to the European Copernicus Climate Service.
The world’s warming is due to emissions of planet-heating gases from human activities—mainly the burning of fossil fuels—but scientists say they cannot fully explain why last month was particularly hot.
It continues a series of surprisingly large temperature records since mid-2023, with temperatures around 0.2°C above what had been expected.
