Climate Records
Warmest and coldest years on record, how this year ranks so far, and the full ranked history by season and month - for the global average, every continent, and hundreds of countries, US states and UK regions (plus rainfall, and where available sunshine and frost). Updated monthly.
Records – Global
NOAA Climate at a Glance - Global Land+Ocean - Anomalies vs 1901-2000 mean
Explore
Explore Climate Data
Data Sources
Methodology & Sources
- Global temperature (land + ocean) - NOAA Climate at a Glance Global Land+Ocean surface temperature anomaly record, updated monthly.
- Continents and countries - Copernicus ERA5 2m temperature (C3S) and GPCC Full Data Monthly precipitation (DWD), aggregated to country level with fractional area weighting; World Bank CCKP / CRU TS fallback where GPCC has no coverage.
- US states and US climate regions - NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) monthly temperature and precipitation records.
- UK nations and regions - Met Office UK Regional Series (temperature, precipitation, sunshine hours, frost days). Crown Copyright.
All datasets are updated monthly as source agencies publish new readings.
FAQs
Climate Records - Common Questions
What do the climate records show?
For any region, the records table shows the warmest and coldest year on record for temperature (or wettest/driest, sunniest/dullest, etc. for other metrics), how the current year ranks so far against every prior year, and the same breakdown by season and by calendar month. Expand "Top 10" on any card to see the full ranked list of years, not just the single extreme.
Which regions can I explore?
Records covers the whole globe, all seven continents, 160+ individual countries, all 50 US states, 9 US climate regions, the four UK nations (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland) and 17 UK sub-regions. Use the picker above to search, browse by area type, or find a region on the map.
How does the Warmest/Coldest (ranking direction) toggle work?
It flips which end of the record "#1" ranks from - Warmest-first (the default) makes #1 the highest value on record; Coldest-first makes #1 the lowest. This applies to the "so far" rank figure and to every Top 10 list across Year, Seasons and Months.
Why does a month or season sometimes show a year in brackets, like "(2025)"?
The current year has not reached every month or season yet - a page viewed in March has no July data for that year. Rather than leaving the card blank, it falls back to the most recent year that does have complete data for that period and labels which year it actually is, so it is never mistaken for the current year's own figure.
What does "so far" mean?
It is the current year's value using only the months of data published so far this year, ranked against the same partial-year window in every prior year - not a projection or an estimate for the full year. Its Top 10 expand panel shows the years with the nearest rank to the current year, not the overall extremes (those are already the High/Low cards).
Where does the data come from, and how far back does it go?
UK nations and regions use the Met Office UK Regional Series (Crown Copyright). US states and US climate regions use NOAA NCEI. Countries and continents use Copernicus ERA5 (C3S) for temperature and GPCC (DWD) for precipitation, with World Bank CCKP/CRU TS filling any gaps. Record length varies by region and source - each card's underlying series typically runs from the early-to-mid 20th century to the present, updated as source agencies publish new monthly readings.