Last month was the hottest January on RECORD - with global average temperatures hitting 13.23°C

It has acted as a buffer over the past half century, or 70 years, for us. We are exceeding that buffer capacity, and we are feeling that in terms of extreme events on land,

said Brenda Ekwurzel, director of scientific excellence at the Union of Concerned Scientists nonprofit, who was not involved in collating the C3S data

We must dismantle the dangerous corporate delusion that fossil fuel expansion can continue without consequence. Instead, we must embrace the once in a lifetime opportunity to build the zero-carbon infrastructure needed for a safe future that includes everyone,

he said in a press statement

We need to make sure that whoever we vote for is taking action on issues that are important to us, to make sure we can mitigate future climate change and adapt to our existing climate,

she added

We know from our understanding of the climate system that the warmer the atmosphere is, the more likely we are to have these hazardous extreme weather events and that's what really impacts people and ecosystems,

she said

Until we see that effectively dissipate into the deep ocean, we're likely to continue to see very high temperatures, but maybe not record-breaking temperatures,

she said

Global sea surface temperatures are a bit lower than in 2024 and will likely remain lower as we move further into 2025,

he said, cautioning against reading too much into a single month's data

Having crashed through the 1.5 C limit in 2024, the climate is showing no signs of wanting to dip under it again, reflected by the fact that this is the 18th of the last 19 months to see the global temperature rise since pre-industrial times top 1.5 C,

said McGuire

Friederike Ottodr

The LA wildfires were a stark reminder that we have already reached an incredibly dangerous level of warming,

said Otto

The fact that the latest robust Copernicus data reveals the January just gone was the hottest on record, despite an emerging La Niña, which typically has a cooling effect, is both astonishing and, frankly terrifying,

said Bill McGuire, Emeritus Professor of Geophysical and Climate Hazards at University College London

Friederike Ottodr

Sure El Niño and La Niña add or take a tiny bit of warming, but the reason we've broken another record is the continued burning of fossil fuels,

said Friederike Otto, senior lecturer at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London

The persistence of record warmth through 2023, 2024 and now into the first month of 2025 is jarring to say the least,

said University of Michigan environment dean Jonathan Overpeck, who wasn't part of the Hansen study

Even though the equatorial Pacific isn't creating conditions that are warming for our global climate, we're still seeing record temperatures,

Burgess said, ... adding much

James Hansenformer top NASA scientist

I'm confident that this higher rate will continue for at least several years,

Hansen told The Associated Press in an interview

This is what makes it a bit of a surprise: you’re not seeing this cooling effect, or temporary brake at least, on the global temperature that we were expecting to see.”

Julien Nicolas, a climate scientist at Copernicus, told Agence France-Presse

It’s really still a matter of debate,

Nicolas said

This heat is bound to resurface periodically. I think that’s also one of the questions: is this what has been happening over the past couple of years?”

Nicolas said

January 2025 is another surprising month, continuing the record temperatures observed throughout the last two years … Copernicus will continue to closely monitor ocean temperatures and their influence on our evolving climate throughout 2025.”

Samantha Burgess, the strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, said

The fact that we’re still seeing record temperatures outside of the influence of El Niño is a little surprising,

said Samantha Burgess, Strategic Lead at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which runs the C3S service

By far and away the largest contributing factor to our warming climate is the burning of fossil fuels,

she said

This heat is bound to resurface periodically,

said Nicolas