NASA’s latest climate analysis shows that 2025 came extremely close to becoming the hottest year ever recorded on Earth, narrowly matching 2023, while confirming 2024 as the hottest year since records began in 1880. The findings highlight a persistent and accelerating global warming trend affecting both land and ocean surfaces worldwide.
Earth’s global surface temperature in 2025, averaged across the entire year, was a hair warmer than 2023, making the two years effectively tied, according to NASA scientists. While 2025 did not officially surpass the record, the difference was so minimal that researchers consider both years statistically indistinguishable in terms of global heat levels.
NASA’s latest analysis also confirms that 2024 now stands as the hottest year in the modern temperature record, which dates back to 1880.
Despite not breaking the record outright, 2025 remains firmly part of the long-term global warming trend, with temperatures significantly higher than those observed during the mid-20th century. Scientists emphasize that this reflects persistent, extreme, and widespread planetary warming across both land and ocean surfaces.
According to a NASA report published by the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) on the agency’s official website, Earth’s average surface temperature in 2025 was 2.14 degrees Fahrenheit (1.19 degrees Celsius) warmer than the 1951–1980 average.
This period is commonly used by climate scientists as a baseline to measure long-term warming trends.
The findings are based on one of the most comprehensive climate datasets in existence, drawing from multiple sources to ensure global accuracy.
NASA’s analysis incorporates:
Air temperature readings from over 25,000 weather stations worldwide
Sea surface temperatures collected from ships and ocean buoys
Data from Antarctic research stations to ensure coverage of remote and polar regions
This extensive dataset allows scientists to capture temperature trends across nearly the entire planet.
NASA scientists used refined statistical methods to:
Account for changes in weather station locations over time
Reduce distortions caused by urban heat effects, which can artificially inflate local temperature readings
These adjustments help ensure that long-term temperature trends reflect true climate change rather than measurement bias.
Independent analyses conducted by:
NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
Berkeley Earth
UK Met Office’s Hadley Centre
Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service
all place 2025 among the top three hottest years on record, despite using different data sets and analytical techniques.
Scientists say the agreement across multiple institutions reinforces the reliability of the findings and highlights a clear and ongoing warming trend driven by long-term climate change.
While year-to-year rankings may shift slightly, researchers stress that the broader trend is unmistakable: global temperatures are rising well above historical norms, affecting ecosystems, weather patterns, and sea levels worldwide.
The warming observed in 2025 was not limited to one region or surface type. Instead, it reflects system-wide heating of Earth’s climate, spanning continents and oceans alike.