The November 2025 temperature map brings attention to a month that ranked as the third-warmest November on record, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). The global average surface air temperature reached 14.02 °C, placing it 0.65 °C above the 1991–2020 reference period. These values anchor the visualisation presented today, which illustrates how the month played out across the Northern Hemisphere through a patchwork of warm and cool anomalies.
The data show large parts of the Arctic experiencing surface air temperature anomalies between +5 °C and +7 °C. These unusually warm areas stretched across northern Canada, the Arctic Ocean, and western Russia, while pockets of cooler conditions appeared elsewhere. Northern Sweden and Finland, parts of Iceland, and sections of northern Italy and southern Germany recorded anomalies around −2 °C to −3 °C. The contrast between these regions is a central feature of the map, demonstrating how conditions diverged within a single month.
Global records provide additional context. November 2025 was 0.20 °C cooler than the warmest November on record in 2023 and only 0.08 °C cooler than November 2024. Relative to the 1850–1900 pre-industrial benchmark, November 2025 was 1.54 °C warmer. October and November 2025 bring to a close a short sequence of months below 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. November is now counted as the 28th month in the ERA5 record to exceed that threshold. Most of these months appeared in a long sequence between July 2023 and April 2025, with earlier cases dating back to early 2016.
Differences among datasets play a role in determining whether specific months cross the 1.5 °C threshold, and there is also uncertainty in estimating the rise from the pre-industrial period to the 1991–2020 average. Despite these uncertainties, the broader trend is consistent: global temperatures continue to reach levels among the highest observed.
Boreal autumn 2025 (September to November) followed the same general direction. The global average for the season was 0.67 °C above the 1991–2020 average, making it the third-warmest boreal autumn. It came in 0.21 °C and 0.08 °C cooler than the 2023 and 2024 seasons, respectively.
The broader picture for the year suggests a similar trajectory. Averages for January to November 2025 show a global anomaly of 0.60 °C above the 1991–2020 baseline, equivalent to 1.48 °C above the 1850–1900 level. These values match those of the full year 2023, currently the second-warmest year in the record. With one month remaining, 2025 is almost certain to finish as the second- or third-warmest year, likely tied with 2023. While 2025 may remain just below the 1.5 °C mark, the 2023–2025 three-year average is expected to exceed 1.5 °C, marking the first time this has occurred across any three-year period in the instrumental record.
Across Europe, November 2025 was also warm. The continent registered an average temperature of 5.74 °C, which is 1.38 °C above the 1991–2020 average. This made it the fifth-warmest European November on record and 0.36 °C cooler than the warmest in 2015. During the season as a whole, European land temperatures stood 1.06 °C above average, the fourth-warmest autumn in the data record. The 2025 season was slightly cooler than the exceptional autumns of 2020, 2023, and 2024, though only 0.01 °C warmer than autumn 2006.
Within Europe, warm anomalies were most notable across eastern Europe, Russia, the Balkans, and Türkiye. Kyiv recorded its fourth-warmest November. Northern France, much of the United Kingdom and Ireland, and parts of central Norway and Sweden also saw above-average temperatures. Local variations, however, remained significant. Western Europe, for example, experienced a short cold spell around 21–22 November, with temperatures dropping in France and the United Kingdom. Colder-than-average conditions also appeared in northern Sweden and Finland, Iceland, and parts of northern Italy and southern Germany.
Conditions outside Europe varied widely. The strongest warm anomalies appeared over Nunavut in northern Canada, through the Canadian archipelago, and across the western Eurasian Arctic, where temperatures surpassed +7 °C above average. Much-warmer-than-average conditions also occurred across East Antarctica. In contrast, northern Siberia experienced a large region of below-average temperatures, and other cold anomalies appeared in parts of India, southern Africa, southern Australia, and the southwest of the Arabian Peninsula. Over the Himalayan range and the Tibetan Plateau, large anomalies were present, influenced by early heavy snowfall following the remnants of cyclone Montha. These should be interpreted cautiously, as the area is a known challenge for the ERA5 model.
Sea surface temperatures (SSTs) between 60°S and 60°N remained at historically high levels throughout November. The monthly mean reached 20.42 °C, which is 0.29 °C above the 1991–2020 average and the fourth-highest value on record for November. The northern Pacific continued to show extensive areas of above-average SSTs, with some areas setting records. Other warm ocean regions included the Coral Sea, the central South Atlantic, the Norwegian Sea, and a region off East Antarctica. Below-average SSTs occurred in the Sea of Okhotsk, the Arabian Sea, and the western Indian Ocean, while the central and eastern equatorial Pacific showed conditions consistent with a shift toward weak La Niña.
This November 2025 visualisation captures a month shaped by strong Arctic warmth, regional contrasts, and ocean temperatures that continue to reach levels near the top of the historical record.
Featured image credit: European Union, Copernicus Climate Change Service Data
