Another round of snowy, chilly weather is gripping the United States this week, extending the frigid start to the year across much of North America. Yet despite the cold temperatures over the continent, the planet as a whole has set a new temperature record yet again: January 2025 was the hottest January ever measured on planet Earth.

The European Union’s space program, Copernicus, and independent research group Berkeley Earth both confirmed the result. The planet was between 2.95 degrees Fahrenheit (1.64 Celsius) and 3.15 degrees F (1.75 C) warmer than the average January at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, back when humanity’s voracious appetite for coal, oil, and natural gas began to take off, spewing heat-trapping gasses into the atmosphere.

While it fits the planet’s warming trend, the hot start to the year is still remarkable for a few reasons. It’s part of a run of unusual heat across the planet, even in the context of gradual global warming that humans have been driving since the Industrial Revolution. January was the 18th month out of the last 19 to have global average air temperatures greater than 2.7 F (1.5 C) above pre-industrial levels. Under the Paris Climate Agreement, countries agreed to try to limit warming this century to less than 2.7 F (1.5 C) on average.........

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