Name: 2025 was the second hottest year on record
Uploaded: 2026-01-09T04:05:07.603Z
Duration: 3 min 16 s
Description: AccuWeather Vice President of Forecast Operations Dan DePodwin and AccuWeather Climate Expert Brett Anderson discuss the top headlines related to climate change in the Jan. 8 edition of Climate In The News.

AccuWeather Vice President of Forecast Operations Dan DePodwin and AccuWeather Climate Expert Brett Anderson discuss the top headlines related to climate change in the Jan. 8 edition of Climate In The News.

Preliminary data from Yale Environment indicates that 2025 was the second warmest year on record, following a trend where the last three years have been the hottest ever documented. Researchers identified four main drivers contributing to the recent surge in global temperatures: Pacific water temperatures influenced by El Nino, a significant underwater volcanic eruption in 2022, increased solar output, and a reduction in sulfur dioxide emissions from shipping.

A separate study from Penn State highlights that the Arctic is warming faster than any other region. The research found that chemicals released from large Alaskan oil fields are increasing atmospheric bromine, which depletes ozone and allows more solar energy to reach the surface. Additionally, increased sea ice openings and gas plumes are contributing to more heat-trapping water vapor and smog levels comparable to major urban areas.

2025 was the second hottest year on record

Well today we'll look at a couple of drivers of the recent surge in climate change and global warming and then we'll take a trip to the Arctic. Brett, our first story from Yale Environment, a summary of 2025 and how that compares to the last several years in terms of how warm the world was. What do we say about 2025 with this preliminary data? Well, not surprising once again, about second warmest a year on record according to their data. Last three years have been the warmest on record which is quite incredible, the last three years. So why is that? So they looked at four potential drivers of recent of the recent surge and they found some interesting results. So the drivers, some of them include the the water temperatures in the Pacific through El Nino, volcanic eruption in the South Pacific. What did the study find in terms of how these factors have influenced this recent surge in warming? Okay, so the volcanic eruption of 2022 which was underwater sent a tremendous amount of water vapor up into the upper atmosphere. Water vapor is basically traps heat near surface, so that's one. Uptick in solar output which is a natural phenomenon, but we did have that. The formation of a super El Nino late in 2023, not early 2023, late 2023 also likely had an influence which is normal. And then a decline in sulfur dioxide emissions especially through shipping. Again, when you reduce that this allows more of the Sun's energy to reach the surface. And reduction in solar dioxide emissions is good overall for the planet, but it does increase the warming or at least reduces the cooling effects that these emissions have in the atmosphere. So certainly more research to be done on sort of on why this warming surge has occurred, but four key drivers detailed there. Our second study today from Penn State research just published that discusses the feedback loops in the Arctic. The Arctic, Brett, has been warming as we talked about here many times, warming the fastest of anywhere on the planet. What does this new research find? All right, so they looked at the oil fields, especially the large oil fields up in Alaska, and they're producing a chemical process which is leading to, which is quite interesting, chemicals are released through the oil fields are interacting with snow packs which contain saline, and this is increasing the amount of bromine into the atmosphere. Bromine is not friendly towards ozone, and so when we deplete the ozone, we're allowing more of the sun's energy to reach the surface. That's interesting. Also they found that there's more openings in the sea ice which also contribute. Yes, the opening of sea ice which is allowing more convective clouds and plumes, more water vapor to get up into the atmosphere. Water vapor, again, is heat trapping. So again, another influence of warming. Yeah, the Arctic, a very important part of our planet. Yes. It's one of the ones that needs to be studied more with climate change. Another really interesting finding from this study was that some of the gas plumes from the oil fields are producing smog that in some cases can be just as bad as urban areas like Los Angeles, for instance. Unbelievable. So a pretty pristine environment being transformed into something more like a city. Thank you, Brett, for that information. Other stories about climate, you can find those at AccuWeather.com slash climate.

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Breakdown