Ammon News - Last January was the hottest January on record, Europe's climate monitor said Thursday, February 6, despite expectations that cooler La Nina conditions might quell a streak of record-breaking global temperatures.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service said January was 1.75°C hotter than pre-industrial times, extending a persistent run of history-making highs over 2023 and 2024, as human-caused greenhouse gas emissions crank up the global thermostat.

Climate scientists had expected this exceptional spell to subside after a warming El Nino event peaked in January 2024 and conditions gradually shifted to an opposing, cooling La Nina phase. But the heat has lingered at record or near record levels ever since, sparking debate among scientists about what other factors could be driving heating to the top end of expectations.

La Nina is expected to be weak and Copernicus said prevailing temperatures in parts of the equatorial Pacific Ocean suggested "a slowing or stalling of the move towards" the cooling phenomenon.

Last month, Copernicus said that global temperatures averaged across 2023 and 2024 had exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius for the first time. This did not represent a permanent breach of the long-term 1.5°C warming target under the Paris climate accord – but a clear sign that the limit was being tested.

Scientists warn that every fraction of a degree of warming above 1.5°C increases the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events like heatwaves, heavy rainfall and droughts. Copernicus said Arctic sea ice in January hit a monthly record low, virtually tied with 2018. Analysis from the US this week put it at the second-lowest in that dataset.

Overall, 2025, is not expected to follow 2023 and 2024 into the history books: scientists predict it will rank the third hottest year yet. Le Monde