World Had Third Hottest June As Climate Change Rolls On

The world was hot again. June, 2025 was the third
hottest on record. Only 2023 and 2024 were warmer, 

Predictably,  June turned out to be the world's third warmest on record, says the National Centers for Environmental Information. 

In a logical world, this shouldn't be happening. Month after month has scored in the top three list of hottest global months, with only a handful of exceptions. 

Climate change rolls on. Thus, this post will seem a bit familiar to past monthly summaries. But remember, essentially, the more things stay the same, the worse they get for Planet Earth. 

After month after month of all time record warmth in 2023 and 2024, we've settled  back into a pattern where most months are the second or third hottest on record.   

I suppose we should be a tiny bit happy, because if you look super closely, there were some minor hints of a temporary cooling trend in June.  Even if those hints are just clutching at straws, 

 June, 2025 was the first month since May, 2023 where the global temperature was a it less 1.0 degrees  Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit) warmer than the 20th century average. 

The temperature anomaly for land ares as the smallest since December, 2022, which isn't really a long time in the grand scheme of things 

 However, oceans were still running super hot, which skewed Earth's overall temperature

Even though June was "cool" compared to 2023 and 2024 it was still solidly hot. All ten of the warmest Junes have occurred since 2016 and last moth was the 49th June in a row with above average global temperatures. 

As usual, cool spots - areas that were as cold or a little cooler than the long term average, were few and far between. Those "cool" spots included a small spot in the North Atlantic and a couple little comers of Greenland, India, parts of northern Africa, central Antarctica. 

The hottest spots, relative to average, were in northern and eastern North America, parts of western Europe, sections of eastern Asia and the western Pacific ocean.

Many areas had some intense heat waves during the second half of the month.

On June 28, El Granado Spain reached  114.8 degrees  the hottest temperature on record for  the entire nation of Spain was registered. (The old record was 113.4 degrees in Seville, back in 1965).

From June 19 through the end of month, daily highs in much of France were 95 degrees or better, with several cities setting records for the number of days getting that warm in a single month. 

Seven weather stations around the world with a period of record at least 40 years set new all time record high temperatures. Five were in Russia. The other two were Yongde, China (91 degrees) and Lebanon, New Hampshire (100 degrees). 

Sea ice is also important to look at every month. The more Arctic and Antarctica ice you have, the more that white ice reflects the sun's heat into space, which could help blunt climate change a tiny bit. However, Arctic sea ice was the second lowest of any year since they started keeping track 47 years ago. Antarctic sea ice was the third lowest.

UNITED STATES

The  United States had its seventh hottest 
June on record. Some states in the Northeast
including Vermont, had their hottest June
temperature on record on June 24

June turned out to be the seventh warmest on record for the Lower 48. It's part of a trend, which isn't surprising in the age of climate change. Six of the nation's seven hottest Junes have all occurred since 2015, notes Yale Climate Connections. 

The hottest temperatures in the U.S. relative to average were on the West Coast and the the Mid-Atlantic States and interior Northeast.  Seventeen states had one of their top ten warmest Junes on record. 

Continuing a climate change trend, nights were generally warmer relative to average than daytimes. Connecticut and Rhode Island both had their warmest June average daily minimum temperature on record, and seven other states scored in the top three in that category.

The June warmth in the eastern U.S was skewed by an extreme heat wave on June 23-25, which was especially notable since the biggest heat waves usually don't hit until you're into July and August. 

Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont broke their statewide records for hottest temperature on record for the entire month of June. Maryland and New Hampshire tied their monthly records. 

June in the U.S. was on the wet side, given how it was the start of our Summer of Floods. The Plains, Midwest, western Appalachians, most of the South and much of the southwestern U.S. was wetter than average.  

The West Coast was definitely dry. Florida and most of New England were also sort of on the dry side, but not to an extreme level.