According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, July 2025 was the third‑hottest July on record globally, trailing only behind July 2023 and July 2024. Regional anomalies included a record high of 50.5°C in Turkey, historic heatwaves in Sweden and Finland, and numerous wildfires across Southeast Europe.
The average global surface air temperature for the month was 16.68°C, which is 0.45°C above the 1991–2020 average, and 1.25°C above pre‑industrial levels (1850–1900). The last 12 months, when taken together, were still 1.53°C above the pre-industrial level.
Europe & elsewhere
In Europe alone, July 2025 ranked as the fourth-warmest month on record, with an average temperature 1.30°C above normal.
In Asia, Japan had its warmest July on record (41.2°C). South Korea experienced a record-breaking streak of ‘tropical nights’ for 22 consecutive days last month, the country’s second-warmest on record. Even Nordic countries like Sweden, Norway, and Finland all saw the mercury surpass the 30°C mark for several consecutive days, which is an unusually high temperature for that region.
High nighttime temperatures not only disrupt sleep, which can negatively affect physical and mental health, cognitive function, and life expectancy, but they also increase the risk of illness and mortality.
More temperature records and more extreme weather events
Two years after the hottest July on record, the recent streak of global temperature records has come to an end – for now – although experts have warned that continued greenhouse gas emissions will likely lead to more temperature records and catastrophic extreme weather events, such as flooding.
Experts warn that exceeding these limits could lead to devastating and potentially irreversible consequences for several vital Earth systems that sustain a hospitable planet.
“Unless we rapidly stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, we should expect not only new temperature records but also a worsening of these impacts – and we must prepare for that,” said Carlo Buontempo, Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Paris Climate Agreement
The critical 1.5°C threshold was established at the 2015 COP21 climate summit, when 196 parties signed the legally binding Paris Climate Agreement. They agreed to keep limiting long-term global warming to “well below 2°C” or below 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century.
