BRUSSELS - January 2025 was the warmest on record globally, with the average surface temperature 0.79 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2000 January average, the EU-funded Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) reported on Thursday.

Its temperature was 1.75 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, while the average temperature over European land rose 2.51 degrees above the 1991-2000 January average.

"Outside Europe, temperatures were most above average over northeast and northwest Canada, Alaska and Siberia. They were also above average over southern South America, Africa and much of Australia and Antarctica," it said in a report.

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The average sea surface temperature between 60 degrees north and 60 degrees south reached 20.78 degrees Celsius, the second-highest January level on record, behind January 2024.

"January 2025 is another surprising month, continuing the record temperatures observed throughout the last two years, despite the temporary cooling effect of La Nina conditions in the tropical Pacific," said Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the C3S.

According to the report, Arctic sea ice reached its lowest extent for January, measuring 6 percent below average.

Last month, C3S confirmed that 2024 was the first calendar year in which the average global temperature exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels - a critical threshold set by the Paris Agreement.

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The agreement aims to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, with an aspiration to cap it at 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.