Geneva: The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has confirmed that 2025 was one of the three warmest years on record. The past 11 years have been the 11 warmest on record, WMO said.

According to Qatar News Agency, WMO reported that despite 2025 starting and ending with a cooling La Nina, it was still one of the warmest years globally due to the accumulation of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. High land and ocean temperatures contributed to extreme weather events, including heatwaves, heavy rainfall, and intense tropical cyclones, highlighting the critical need for early warning systems, stated WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.

Celeste Saulo emphasized the importance of WMO's climate monitoring, which relies on collaborative and scientifically rigorous global data collection, ensuring that Earth information remains authoritative, accessible, and actionable for all. The actual average global temperature in 2025 was estimated to be 15.08 °C, though there is a significant margin of uncertainty regarding the precise temperature.

A separate study published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences indicated that ocean temperatures were also among the highest on record in 2025, reflecting the long-term accumulation of heat within the climate system. The study revealed that approximately 33% of the global ocean area ranked among its historical top three warmest conditions, while about 57% fell within the top five, particularly in regions such as the tropical and South Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, North Indian Ocean, and Southern Oceans.

Furthermore, the study found that the global annual mean sea surface temperature (SST) in 2025 was 0.49 °C above the 1981-2010 baseline and 0.12 ± 0.03 °C lower than in 2024, but still ranking as the third-warmest year on record. The European Copernicus Climate Observatory and the American Berkeley Earth Institute had previously announced that 2025 was the third hottest year and anticipated that 2026 would remain at historically high levels.