Fred T00
The mainstream media have been working themselves into a yet another climate alarmist frenzy about January 2025 being the hottest January on record, globally. This was apparently even more alarming because it was predicted it would be cooler than January 2024.
Here in New Zealand, NIWA says January 2025 was the coolest January since 2017. It was 0.8°C below their 1991–2020 average and they even went as far as admitting that it was the coldest January on record for six locations, and nearly the coldest for a further 17 locations.
But back to global temperatures – arguably the most accurate indication of global temperatures comes from using satellites to measure temperatures in the lower atmosphere, known as the troposphere. Since 1979, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s satellites have been carrying instruments that measure the temperature of the troposphere by observing natural microwave thermal emissions. Every month, the National Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC) in Huntsville, Alabama, updates global temperature datasets using this satellite data.
The NSSTC’s preliminary findings were that the global composite temperature for January 2025 was down by 0.40°C on January 2024. Not a record high at all! January 2025 was 0.46°C above their seasonal average compared to 0.62°C above average in December 2024 and 0.86°C above average in January 2024.
Giving further detail on January, the NSSTC reported that the decline in tropical temperature of 0.29°C from December was substantial and, when included in the global temperature, the January 2025 global anomaly of +0.46°C produced the coolest anomaly since June 2023 and continues the decline begun in November.
As most readers probably know, there are many problems with conventional weather station data, including the ‘heat island’ effect as cities become larger, changes in station location and manipulation of historic records. Satellite data should be largely immune to these problems and a more reliable indicator of our constantly changing climate. The main weakness is probably that satellite data have only been gathered since 1979.
https://www.nsstc.uah.edu/climate/
https://niwa.co.nz/climate-and-weather/monthly/climate-summary-january-2025
