Air temperature

 

During the first month of 2025, abnormally warm weather prevailed in most of the Russian Federation, especially in the ETR where new daily maxima of air temperature were repeatedly recorded from Syktyvkar and Vologda in the north to Crimea and Dagestan in the south and from Smolensk in the west to the Volga region and Udmurtia in the east, and the decade-averaged temperature anomalies exceeded +4-8°.

In the first half of the month, a similar situation was observed in the Urals where the temperature anomalies in the first and second decades were even higher than in the ETR, and new temperature maxima were measured in many locations. But after cold weather came to the north of this region in the third decade, the decade-averaged temperature anomalies became negative, and the temperatures to the south of the region changed to normal.

The patterns in Siberia and in the Far East were more involved: there, new temperature maxima in the south of Western Siberia as well as in Trans-Baikal and Primorye were accompanied with new minima when the thermometer readings in the north of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, in Yakutia and in Chukotka dropped below -50° at times. In the second and third decades, the decade-averaged temperature anomalies in the north of Siberia, in Kolyma and in Chukotka were -2…-7°.

Eventually, January 2025 turned out to be the warmest in the history of meteorological observations since 1891 in the ETR and in the Central Federal District, and among the top ten warmest in other federal districts: the second warmest in the Southern, third in the Volga, fourth in the North-Caucasian, and seventh in the North-Western Federal District. The entire Asian Territory of Russia as well as the Siberian Federal District and the northern part of the Far-Eastern one separately were among the top ten warmest in history. Regarding Russia as a whole, this January was the fourth in the ranking list wherein January 2007 preserved its leading position.

All the way from the western border to Primorye, the monthly-averaged temperature was 4-8° higher than normal, but in the north, from Taimyr to Chukotka and Kamchatka, the month was noticeably colder than usual, by 2-4° on the average.

The air temperature was markedly above normal in Mongolia and in certain regions of China, and normal in Japan and on the Korean Peninsula. In China, this January was the second warmest in history.

The weather in South-East Asia was slightly colder than usual.

The average temperature in India was above-normal in the east, and close to normal in the rest of the country and in neighbouring Pakistan; in India, it was among the top five highest in history.

In most of the Near and Middle East, the air temperatures were about normal, but the background of anomalies was different: positive in the Levant countries, Iraq and the north of Iran, and negative in the south of the latter country as well as on the Arabian Peninsula. The exceptions in this region were Turkey and the Transcaucasian countries: there, January was notably warmer than usual, and the monthly-averaged temperature anomalies reached +2° or more.

In Central Asia, the monthly-averaged temperatures were significantly higher than their normal values: by 2-4° in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan, and by up to 6° in Kazakhstan. At the same time, frosts down to -25…-35° were observed in the north.

January in Eastern Europe was very warm: new temperature maxima were recorded in Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland and the Baltic countries, and the monthly-averaged temperatures were 2-3 or more degrees higher than normal. The averages in Western and Northern Europe were close to normal, with negative anomalies in Great Britain, Ireland and Iceland. The Norwegian meteorological service reported that the air temperature at high-mountain stations remained positive for several days in a row in the middle of the month; this has never been observed before. The monthly-averaged air temperature in the continent was the fifth highest in the history of meteorological observations.

In North Africa, the average temperature in January was two or more degrees higher than normal in the north-east and close to normal elsewhere; the weather in the West African countries was slightly colder than usual. Overall, this January was the fifth warmest in the region.

The air temperature was unusually high in the northern areas of Canada (its monthly average was 6-8° higher than normal), normal in the south of the country, but noticeably lower than normal further south in the USA where the anomalies were negative almost everywhere and the monthly-averages in the eastern and central states were 2-3 or more degrees below the normal values. No such cold January in the US has been seen in this century; something similar was last observed in 1988. The weather in the north of Mexico, in Cuba and on some Caribbean islands was also cold. Yet, this January was in the top five warmest in Canada and in the top ten, in Alaska.

In the Arctic, the monthly-averaged air temperature was approximately 1.5° above the normal value. This January, the ice cover area was the smallest for this month of year in the entire history of observations.

As for the Northern Hemisphere, January 2025 was the warmest in the meteorological history since 1891.

Likewise, this January was the warmest in the meteorological chronicle of Moscow: its average temperature was 0.1° higher than the previous record-breaking value observed in 2020, and was positive for the first time in history: +0.1°, with an anomaly of +6.3°. New maxima of air temperature were set on five successive days in the capital.

 

Sea Surface Temperature

In January 2025, the neutral phase of the Southern Oscillation was still active in the equatorial Pacific, but the water area occupied by negative SST anomalies and the magnitudes thereof dramatically increased, pointing at possible upcoming development of La Niña, the cold episode of the Southern Oscillation. The average SST of the Ocean in the Northern Hemisphere was rated the second highest in the history of observations, yielding only to the record-breaking value measured in January a year before. High positive SST anomalies (exceeding +1°) were generally concentrated in the western and central parts at tropical and temperate latitudes (in particular, in the Sea of Japan and in the Yellow Sea), whereas the SST in the Sea of Okhotsk was subnormal.

The average SST of the Atlantic Ocean in the Northern Hemisphere was also the second highest after its record-breaking maximum in January 2024. Most of the Ocean was occupied by positive SST anomalies, but the anomalies in a large water body at subtropical latitudes in the west of the Ocean were negative. The SST was above-normal in all marginal seas of Europe; the anomalies in the east of the Mediterranean Sea and in the Barents Sea exceeded +2°. In contrast, the water off the coast of Greenland was abnormally cold.

The SST of the World Ocean in the Northern Hemisphere was the second highest in the history of observations after the all-time highest value recorded in January of the previous year.

In the ETR, precipitation was abundant in the north and in the Volga region only. In particular, the monthly precipitation totals were normal or above-normal everywhere in the North-West Federal District, more than one and a half times the normal figure in the Leningrad, Novgorod, Pskov and Arkhangelsk Regions and in the Republic of Komi. Normal precipitation was observed in the northern regions of the Central Federal District as well as in most constituent entities of the Federation in the Volga Federal District. Unprecedented precipitation with new daily maxima was reported in Tatarstan, Udmurtia, the Perm Territory and the Samara Region in the first decade of the month, and in the north-west of the ETR at the end of the month. The rest of the ETR received noticeably less atmospheric moisture than normal. The monthly precipitation totals in certain constituent entities of the Federation in the Southern and North-Caucasian Federal Districts did not even reach half the normal amounts.

Normal or increased precipitation was observed in the Urals. The all-time heaviest snowfalls took place in the Khanty-Mansi and Yamal-Nenets autonomous districts in the north, bringing up to half the normal monthly precipitation quantity in one day and resulting that the normal monthly amount was exceeded twice.

Siberia received a lot of precipitation: two times the normal figure in Altai, and one and a half times, in the Tomsk Region. In the rest of the territory save for Taimyr, precipitation was normal. New maxima of daily precipitation totals were recorded in Evenkiya.

With the exception of Kamchatka and Kolyma, precipitation in the Far East was normal. Heaviest snowfalls covered Sakhalin where the snow cover grew by up to half a metre per day and the snow banks became two metres high by the end of the month.

The monthly precipitation totals reached, or in some places exceeded, the normal figures in the northern and central regions of China, but were subnormal in the rest of China, as well as in the south of the Korean Peninsula and of Japan, unlike in the north of the latter territories where they were normal.

Precipitation in the countries of South-East Asia was scarce with no rains at all in some areas, but the exceptions will always tend to exist: occasional heavy showers did fell in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, causing floods and landslides in the central parts of Java (Indonesia) where the fatalities were also reported.

No rains fell in Pakistan and in most of India: they were observed in the south of the Hindustan Peninsula only.

The weather in most of the Near and Middle East was also dry, the drought in Iraq persisting since the end of the last year. Heavy rains fell in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, resulting in floods and sinking a number of settlements under water, including the religious centres of Mecca and Medina.

In Central Asia, precipitation was adequate in the north of Kazakhstan, and scanty elsewhere, or even completely absent during the month in some places.

Virtually no precipitation was observed in South Africa. Heavy snowfalls in the mountains of Morocco took place twice at the beginning and the end of the month. In some places, snow fell for the first time in fifty years.

Most of Europe – first of all, its eastern, south-eastern and partly southern regions – did not receive the required amount of precipitation. The path of sufficient or sometimes excessive monthly precipitation extended from France through the Benelux countries and northern Germany to the Baltic countries. The normal precipitation amounts in France were exceeded by 1.5-3.0 times. At the beginning of the month, heavy rains fell for several successive days in Lithuania, forcing the rivers to overflow their banks and resulting in floods, and at the end of January, downpours caused floods in France and in some other countries of Western Europe. The French authorities called these showers most intensive in the last forty years. At the same time, snowfalls occurred in the mountains of Spain.

The weather in Canada and the USA was mostly dry, with the normal precipitation figures reached solely in the Arctic regions of Canada and in some places in the east of the US. This January in the latter country was the sixth driest in history. At the beginning of the month, a snow storm passed along the American states of Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, Nebraska, Ohio and West Virginia, and was so heavy that the height of freshly fallen snow reached 30 cm. A lot of atmospheric moisture went to Alaska where this January was the wettest in the history of this northern state. The weather was dry the north of Mexico, while precipitation in the centre of the country was normal or increased.

The January precipitation total in Moscow was 47 mm, amounting to 89% of the normal value.

Hydrometcentre of Russia