Copernicus: Last month was the warmest January on record despite cooling La Niña conditions

By the Climate Centre

The global average temperature last month was 1.75°C above the pre-industrial level, and January was the 18th of the last 19 months when it was more than 1.5°C above the pre-industrial level, the European Copernicus service said yesterday.

The reading nudges the planet closer to a breach of the Paris 1.5°C threshold as an average spanning decades.

Samantha Burgess, Strategic Lead for Climate at European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), said yesterday: “January 2025 is another surprising month, continuing the record temperatures observed throughout the last two years, despite the development of La Niña conditions in the tropical Pacific and their temporary cooling effect on global temperatures.”

The current La Niña conditions are expected to persist until April 2025, with a transition to a neutral ENSO state by May, with a 60 per cent probability for both scenarios, according to US government scientists.

 ‘Another surprising month’

January 2025 saw predominantly wetter-than-average conditions over western Europe; heavy precipitation led to flooding in some regions, according to Copernicus, the European Union’s Earth Observation Programme as part of the ECMWF.

Outside Europe, it was wetter than average in Alaska, Canada, central and eastern Russia, eastern Australia (photo), south-eastern Africa, southern Brazil, with some regions experiencing floods and associated damage.

Copernicus last month confirmed 2024 as the warmest year on record and the first to exceed 1.5°C, adding that Europe is the fastest-warming continent on Earth, twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s.

“The overall frequency and severity of extreme weather events are increasing,” Copernicus said. “Sea surface temperatures remained exceptionally high, with July to December 2024, being the second warmest on record for the time of year after 2023.”

The Australian Red Cross evacuation centre management team was today flown by army helicopter to the small Queensland town of Ingham to assist people affected by floods described by State Premier David Crisafulli as incredible: parts of the state have seen nearly two metres of rain over a relatively short period. “The great rainmaker, La Niña, could be back for the fourth time in five years, increasing the prospect of a soaking start to 2025 across most of Australia,” ABC Australia reported last month. (Photo: Australian Red Cross)