The Year’s Weather 2025

Globally, 2025 is on track to be the second or third warmest years on record according to the World Meteorological Organization’s preliminary assessment. Over the Arctic and the Antarctica, sea-ice extent remained well below average during the year. In particular, the Arctic annual maximum sea-ice extent was the lowest in the satellite record. Extreme weather events affected many parts of the world in 2025, including heatwaves in East Asia, Europe and the eastern Mediterranean; severe droughts in southwest Asia and the Amazon basin; severe flooding triggered by extreme rainfall in South Asia, western Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Eastern Cape of South Africa and Texas of the United States; severe damages and heavy casualties inflicted by tropical cyclones in the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Mozambique, Madagascar, the Caribbean, Malaysia and Indonesia. Rampant wildfires exacerbated by high temperatures, dry and windy conditions also wreaked havoc in Europe, the Republic of Korea and California of the United States.

Sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific were near normal from January through October 2025, then lingered between below normal and near normal in November and December 2025.

In Hong Kong, with all 12 months warmer than usual, including the record-breaking monthly mean temperature in October, 2025 was the sixth warmest year on record with the annual mean temperature reaching 24.3 degrees, 0.8 degrees above the 1991-2020 normal[1]. The annual mean maximum temperature of 27.1 degrees and annual mean minimum temperature of 22.4 degrees were respectively one of the fifth and one of the sixth highest since records began in 1884. There were 53 very hot days[2] and 54 hot nights[3] in Hong Kong in 2025, both ranking the third highest on record. There were also four extremely hot days[4], ranking one of the fifth highest on record.

The Year’s Weather 2025 – A Stormy 2025