January was the hottest month ever recorded and the temperature exceeded the pre-industrial level by 1.75 degrees Celsius (°C), making it the 18th month out of the last 19 with an average temperature above 1.5°C.

An international website specializing in environmental issues says, citing the European Earth observation service Copernicus, that not even the emergence of a 'La Niña' - a natural cyclical meteorological phenomenon in which the temperature of the Pacific Ocean decreases, as opposed to the warming caused by 'El Niño' - prevented last month from being the hottest on record worldwide.

The Copernicus report indicates that the global average air temperature was 13.23 °C, 0.79 °C more than the 1991-2020 average for the month of January. It points to greenhouse gas emissions as the cause of the increase.

The Copernicus service specifies that the last 12-month period (February 2024 - January 2025) was 0.73 °C above the 1991-2020 average, and 1.61 °C above the estimated 1850-1900 average used to define the pre-industrial level.

In Europe, the average temperature in January was 2.51 °C above the average for January 1991-2020, the second warmest after January 2020, which was 2.64 °C above average.

Eastern Europe, including eastern Russia, saw the highest temperatures, while Iceland, the United Kingdom, Ireland and northern France recorded below-average temperatures.

In the rest of the world, temperatures were above average in Canada, Alaska and Siberia, southern South America, Africa and parts of Australia and Antarctica. Below-average temperatures were recorded in the United States, the Arabian Peninsula and Southeast Asia.

The average sea surface temperature in January was the second highest ever recorded for January (20.78 °C), surpassed only by January last year.

In hydrological terms, the report indicates that January was wetter than average in parts of Western Europe and parts of Italy, Scandinavia and the Baltic countries, and drier than average in the north of the United Kingdom and Ireland, in eastern Spain and north of the Black Sea.

Arctic sea ice reached its lowest monthly extent in January, 6% below average, virtually tied with January 2018.