April 2025 becomes world’s second-hottest on record; global temperature stays above 1.5°C pre-industrial limit

New Delhi: April 2025 has become the second-warmest April ever recorded globally, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service. The past 12 months (from May 2024 to April 2025) were also 1.58°C warmer than temperatures recorded during the pre-industrial period (1850–1900).

The global average surface air temperature for April 2025 was 14.96°C. This is 0.60°C higher than the average for the month between 1991 and 2020. April this year was 0.07°C cooler than April 2024, the hottest April on record, but still 0.07°C warmer than April 2016, which was the third-hottest.

“April 2025 was 1.51 degrees Celsius above the estimated 1850–1900 average used to define the pre-industrial level. It was the 21st month in the last 22 months for which the global-average surface air temperature was more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level,” Copernicus said in a statement.

The 12-month period from May 2024 to April 2025 was also 0.70°C warmer than the 1991–2020 average.

Samantha Burgess, deputy director of Copernicus Climate Change Service, said, “Globally, April 2025 was the second-hottest April on record, continuing the long sequence of months over 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Continuous climate monitoring is an essential tool for understanding and responding to the ongoing changes in our climate system.”

Scientists link this continued rise in temperature to human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels. This has led to a large increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, warming the Earth and causing more severe floods, droughts, storms, and other extreme weather events.

At the 2015 UN climate summit in Paris, countries agreed to try and keep global temperature rise within 1.5°C of pre-industrial levels to avoid the worst effects of climate change. The year 2024 was the first full calendar year when global temperatures crossed this threshold. However, for this to be considered a “permanent breach,” the average temperature would need to stay that high for 20–30 years.

Copernicus also reported that the average sea surface temperature (SST) for April 2025 was 20.89°C, the second-highest ever recorded for that month. SSTs remained unusually high across many parts of the ocean, especially in the northeast North Atlantic, where April temperatures were the highest on record.

The Mediterranean Sea also stayed much warmer than normal, although not as extreme as in March.

In the polar regions:

• Arctic sea ice extent was 3% below the average for April—making it the sixth lowest in 47 years of satellite records.
• Antarctic sea ice extent was 10% below the average—ranking as the tenth lowest for April.