The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has announced that 2025 was one of the hottest years ever recorded, continuing a concerning trend of rising global temperatures. In fact, the last 11 years have been the warmest we have ever seen, and our oceans are warming at an alarming rate.
According to the WMO's latest analysis, the average temperature of the Earth's surface in 2025 was approximately 1.44°C higher than the average temperature from 1850 to 1900.
This report analyzed data from eight different sources; while two ranked 2025 as the second hottest year in the last 176 years, the other six placed it as the third hottest.
The past three years—2023 to 2025—are recorded as the three warmest years across all datasets. The consolidated three-year average temperature for 2023 to 2025 is 1.48°C above pre-industrial levels, with a margin of uncertainty of ±0.13°C.
The past eleven years, from 2015 to 2025, are recognized as the eleven warmest years in all datasets.
A recent study published in the journal "Advances in Atmospheric Sciences" revealed that ocean temperatures reached some of their highest recorded levels in 2025.
This increase signals a long-term buildup of heat in our climate system. The oceans play a crucial role in global warming, absorbing about 90% of the extra heat generated by human activities. Therefore, ocean temperatures serve as a key indicator of climate change.
According to the WMO, around one-third of the world’s oceans experienced their top three warmest temperatures historically, dating back to 1958.
Approximately 57% of ocean areas ranked among the five warmest. This includes regions such as the tropical waters, South Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, North Indian Ocean, and the Southern Oceans, highlighting that warming is occurring in numerous ocean areas.
In 2025, the average sea surface temperature was 0.49°C warmer than the average from 1981 to 2010. Although this marks a slight decrease of 0.12°C from 2024, it still makes 2025 the third warmest year on record.
This decline can be attributed to the development of a weather pattern known as La Niña, but overall, the oceans continue to warm significantly. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), which operates the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), found that 2025 was the third warmest year on record, only marginally (0.01°C) cooler than 2023 and 0.13°C cooler than 2024, which was the warmest year on record.