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May 2025 Ranks as Second-Warmest on Record as Arctic Faces Unprecedented Heat

Human-caused emissions have pushed May temperatures to 1.4 °C above pre-industrial levels, prompting warnings of an imminent breach of the 1.5 °C threshold.

FILE - People climb to the top of what once was the Okjokull glacier, in Iceland, Aug. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File)
A man sits on a tangle of branches in the Sacramento River while staying cool during a heat wave in Sacramento, California, U.S. May 30, 2025. REUTERS/Fred Greaves/File Photo
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Smoke rises from the Hubert Lake wildfire WWF023, which forced the evacuation of the Hubert Lake Provincial Park area west of Fawcett, Alberta, Canada in an aerial photograph May 29, 2025. Alberta Wildfire/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

Overview

  • The Copernicus Climate Change Service reports that global surface temperatures in May averaged 1.4 °C above pre-industrial levels, making it the second-warmest May since records began.
  • A World Weather Attribution analysis found that human-driven warming amplified a record-setting May heatwave in Iceland and Greenland by about 3 °C, producing unprecedented regional highs.
  • Greenland’s ice sheet melted 17 times faster than its 1980–2010 average during the Arctic heatwave, raising concerns over accelerated sea level rise and potential disruptions to ocean circulation.
  • Northwestern Europe endured its driest spring since at least 1979, while global sea surface temperatures reached their second-highest May level, fueling marine heatwaves in the northeastern Atlantic.
  • Despite emission cuts by the EU and signs of peaking emissions in China, experts warn that continued reliance on fossil fuels will drive global temperatures back above the Paris Agreement’s 1.5 °C target.