According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, July 2025 was officially the Earth’s third warmest July for global surface temperature in recorded history, following behind 2024 and 2023. The month also brought below-average snow cover extent in the Northern Hemisphere and 14 named storms, putting global tropical cyclone activity was above average for July.
July Temperatures
July 2025 was the third-warmest July in NOAA’s 176-year record, with global surface temperatures 1.80°F (1.00°C) above the 20th-century baseline, surpassed only by July 2024 and 2023. The January–July 2025 period ranked second-warmest, just 0.18°F (0.10°C) below 2024’s record. All 10 of the warmest Julys have occurred since 2016.
There’s a high chance 2025 will be among the five warmest years, though not the warmest. Significantly warmer temperatures dominated Europe, Asia, northern Africa, and parts of the Pacific, Americas, and Antarctica. Europe and Asia had their fourth-warmest July. The Arctic, Africa, and Caribbean ranked seventh, eighth, and ninth. Antarctica saw its coldest July since 2016.
Precipitation and Snow Cover
Global precipitation in July 2025 showed varied patterns. Drier-than-average conditions hit Alaska, parts of Canada, southern Mexico, the western and southeastern U.S., Scandinavia, southern Europe, western Asia, and central/eastern Asia. Wetter-than-average conditions occurred in the eastern U.S., northern Mexico, central Europe, and parts of central/eastern Asia.
Northern Hemisphere snow cover was 120,000 square miles below average, the 15th-smallest July extent on record. North America and Greenland had near-average snow cover at 1.04 million square miles, while Eurasia’s deficit tied for the seventh-smallest July extent.
Global Sea Ice
Throughout July 2025, the global sea ice extent was the third-smallest in the 47-years of recording such data. The global sea ice was 970,000 square miles below the 1991-2020 average. In the Arctic, sea ice extent was the fourth-smallest for July at 420,000 square miles below average. In the Antarctic, the sea ice extent was the third smallest for July at 540,000 square miles below average.
