The 2025 Trend Continues: July Was World's 3rd Warmest

Once again in July, 2025, it was hard to find places
that were cooler than the longtime 20th century
average. Parts of Antarctica and few other
small isolated places were cool, that's it. 

 July, 2025 followed a familiar climate trend we've seen so far this year: It was the third warmest on record, just behind the boffo hot summers of 2023 and 2024 across the world. 

This according to data from the National Centers for Environmental Information. 

Julys figures are in line with recent months, most of which were the third warmest on record. 

The data is yet another piece added to the mountain of evidence that climate change has transformed the world and might be accelerating. 

By the way, all ten of the world's hottest Julys have happened since 2016. It was the 49th consecutive July with above average temperature. It shows the climate has been changing mostly due to human influence for at least a half century. 

In July, 2025, the hottest spots relative to average included northwestern Europe, most of China along with Japan and the Koreas; northern Africa, most of the northern Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean and much of eastern Nort America. 

As we've consistently seen in recent years, cool spots were hard to find in July, 2025 but they were there. This time, we could find chilly areas relative to the long term average in parts of Antarctica, western Australia, parts of  India, central South America, a relatively small area in central North America straddling the U.S. Canadian border and a piece of the North Atlantic Ocean south of Greenland and east of Labrador. 

This year through July is still ranking as the second hottest on record, behind last year. NOAA gives this year a 99 percent chance of being among the top five warmest on record, but only a 1 percent chance of being the absolute warmest.  The record for world's hottest year in 2024 looks safe. For now. 

UNITED STATES

Most of the United States heat in July was 
concentrated in the eastern third of the nation. 

The Lower 48 of the United States had its 19th hottest out of the past 131 Julys in the National Centers for Environmental Information data base.  

Two states - West Virginia and Virginia - had their hottest July on record this year. Nineteen other states, including Vermont had one of their top ten hottest Julys.  

The interesting thing was the warmth was driven largely by very warm overnight temperatures. 

The nation had its fifth warmest average July low temperatures. Twelve states had the warmest July daily low temperatures on record.  The United States had its 33 wettest July out of the past 131 years. 

Nights have generally been warming faster than daytimes. Increased humidity  helps hold nighttime temperatures up. Since a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, this all makes sense. 

The Plains states and California were relatively cool, but not among the coolest on record. For instance, North Dakota had their 58th coldest and Texas had their 60th chilliest July.  In other words, something akin to what the mid-20th was like, before climate change really took hold. 

The United States had its 33rd wettest year. But rainfall really varied from place to place. New England was dry, a hint of a drought that began hitting the region in earnest this month. New Hampshire had its 7th driest July, and in Maine it was 8th driest. (Vermont was 27th driest).

Elsewhere, Utah had its second driest July and Alabama had its 6th driest.

Some places, by contrast, were pretty wet. Amid its hottest July, Virginia also had its fifth wettest July, so the humidity must have been miserable. The Midwest was generally wet, with Iowa logging its second soggiest July of the past 131 years. 

To confirm that this year has been the summer of flash floods, the National Weather Service issued a total of 1,434 flash flood warnings this July, the second highest July total in 40 years. There were 17 flash flood emergencies issues, along with more than 2,000 preliminary flood related storm reports.