2024 was the hottest year on record. 2025 will be a bit cooler, forecasters say

A hot spot from the Lower East Adams Lake wildfire burns in Scotch Creek, B.C., on Sunday, August 20, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

2024 was the hottest year on record. 2025 will be cooler, but not by much.

Federal forecasters held a news conference Wednesday morning to unveil their predictions for the year ahead.

They project it will be hotter than every year prior to 2024, which was the first to exceed 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels.

World leaders created the 1.5 C benchmark in 2015 when working out the details of the Paris Climate Agreement. Staying below that number will avert some of the risks and impacts associated with climate change, they said.

Even though we recorded warming above 1.5 C in 2024, that doesn’t mean we’ve broken the benchmark. It refers to average temperatures over a longer period of time, not individual years.

However, it does mean we are getting closer to breaking it, forecasters say, and our window of opportunity to stay below it is shrinking.

Above-normal temperatures are expected in Canada – and globally – in 2025. This will be the result of greenhouse gases, which trap heat close to the earth, experts expect.

Weak La Nina conditions kicking off 2025 are likely to temper the heat. La Nina refers to weather conditions that typically result in cooler-than-normal winter temperatures in the northern hemisphere.