MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Was last month the hottest ever?

January 2025 was predominantly wetter than average, with heavy rainfall leading to flooding in some regions

January 2025 was the hottest month ever recorded by the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, which detected the planet's temperature to be 1.75 degrees Celsius (°C) above pre-industrial levels and 0.79°C above the 1991-2020 average for the month, with a surface air temperature of 13.23°C.

“January 2025 is another surprising month, continuing the record temperatures seen over the last two years, despite the development of La Niña conditions in the tropical Pacific and their temporary cooling effect on global temperatures,” Samantha Burgess of the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) was quoted as saying.

The record brings the planet to the 18th month - out of the last 19 months - in which the global average surface air temperature has been more than 1.5°C above the pre-industrial level. From February 2024 to January 2025, the planet was 1.61°C above the estimated 1850-1900 average used to define the pre-industrial level.

According to the institution's report released this week, above-average temperatures were observed mainly in southeastern Europe, northeastern and northwestern Canada, Alaska and Siberia, southern South America, Africa, and much of Australia and Antarctica.

Temperatures were below average in northern Europe, the United States, and the easternmost regions of Russia, the Arabian Peninsula, and Southeast Asia.

The average sea surface temperature for January was 20.78ºC, considering the temperate and intertropical zones, at a depth of around 10 meters. According to Copernicus, this is the second-highest value recorded for the month: 0.19°C below January 2024.

The report also said that January was predominantly wetter than average, with heavy rainfall leading to flooding in some regions.

Average rainfall was highest in Western Europe, parts of Italy, Scandinavia and the Baltic countries; Alaska, Canada, central and eastern Russia, eastern Australia, southeastern Africa and southern Brazil.

Copernicus is an Earth observation program that uses measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft, and weather stations around the world to produce analyses of atmospheric, marine, Earth, climate change, security, and emergency data.

The program is coordinated and managed by the European Commission and implemented in partnership with member states, the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, among others.

(Source: Agencia Brasil)