Scorcher of an August Keeps 2025 in Second Place for Hottest Ever

The heat is not breaking across the world. The latest monthly report issued by the European Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) confirmed that 2025 is now the second-warmest year on record through August. Here are the details on what the report said about the sizzling start to the year.

Second-Warmest Year on Record Thus Far Confirmed by New Report

The latest C3S report released on Tuesday detailed that the first eight months of the year came in just behind the record-breaking year of 2024 when looking at overall temperatures across the planet. It was an exceptionally warm stretch from June through August, with the global average temperature clocking in at 0.84 degrees above the 30-year average ending in 2020. This temperature reading was just 0.4 degrees cooler than the record warmth recorded during the same time period in 2024. The 2025 stretch of the three months was also 0.34 degrees cooler than the second-hottest June through August in 2023.

When looking at the first eight months of the year, the study found that 2025 is on pace to be the second-warmest year in history. These first eight months have been 1 degree over the 30-year average. This equates to about 0.22 degrees cooler than the January through August time period in 2024.

Every month in 2025 thus far has placed in at least the top three for the warmest for the respective time, according to this data from C3S. Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found that the year got off to a sizzling start when January claimed the top spot as the warmest in 176 years.

Both NOAA and NASA have confirmed that 2024 was the toastiest year in recorded history, going back to the late 19th century. With 2025 coming close to these numbers, it is no surprise that climatologists continue to sound the alarm bell about the impacts of global warming.