Overview
- The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate report, released Monday, finds 2025 set new records for Earth’s energy imbalance and for heat stored in the ocean to 2,000 meters, placing the year among the hottest on record.
- The WMO says extreme heat, storms, floods, droughts, and cyclones in 2025 killed thousands, affected millions of people, and caused economic losses in the billions.
- About 91% of the excess heat went into the ocean, which reached its highest measured heat content in 2025 and warmed more than twice as fast since 2005 compared with 1960–2005, with roughly 90% of the ocean experiencing a marine heatwave last year.
- Ice loss and rising seas accelerated, with glacier mass loss among the five largest on record, Arctic and Antarctic sea ice near record lows, and global sea level in 2025 about 11 cm higher than in 1993.
- Forecast centers see a significant chance of El Niño later in 2026, with NOAA estimating 62% odds by summer and about 80% by autumn, a setup that would likely push global temperatures higher.