Forest fire (photo source Javier TORRES / AFP / Profimedia)
Central Asia, the Sahel and several countries in Europe experienced the hottest year on record, according to AFP calculations based on Copernicus data. This year, Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom recorded the most severe summer on record.
Globally, 2025 is the third warmest year after 2024 and 2023, according to provisional data to be confirmed by the Copernicus organization in its annual report from early January 2026.
Copernicus data comes from climate models, measurements from around twenty satellites operated by various countries and thousands of weather stations on the ground, at sea or in the air. This data covers the entire planet, hour by hour, from 1970 to the present.
All Central Asian countries are close to breaking their annual temperature record, with Tajikistan leading the way, 3 degrees above the 1981-2010 average.
Temperature records for 2025 were also set in several countries in the Sahel and West African regions: Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Chad, where 2025 temperatures were also 1.5 C above average.
Ten European countries are close to breaking or equaling their annual temperature record in 2025, thanks in particular to an unusual summer. This is the case of Switzerland or several countries in the Balkans, where summer temperatures exceeded the 30-year average by two, even three degrees Celsius.
Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom recorded the most severe summer on record.
Northern Europe was not affected by a record summer, but had an unusually warm autumn. For Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland, 2025 will be one of the warmest two to three years on record.
