2025 in weather and climate — L.A. fires, Hurricane Melissa, and one of three warmest years

Today's year-end retrospective is this year's version of '2024 becomes the world's hottest year on record, fueling extreme weather events,' the year in climate and weather. I open with The Weather Network's Year in Review: How Extreme Weather and Natural Disasters Transformed 2025.

Saphia Khambalia delivers this roundup of world weather events in 2025. From California's deadly wildfires to Jamaica's Hurricane Melissa and the massive earthquakes that shook Myanmar and Russia, 2025 was a year defined by extremes.

That's an impressive list of extreme weather and related natural disasters covering the globe.

The Weather Network has more in Year in Review: 2025’s Most Intense Caught-On-Camera Weather.

This compilation showcases some of the most dramatic and terrifying moments of 2025, capturing the raw power of nature. From massive floods and destructive landslides to powerful tornadoes and shocking avalanches, witness these unbelievable events as they were caught on camera around the world.

Yikes! Also, I couldn't resist.

Closer to home, NBC News reported Extreme weather slams parts of the U.S. throughout 2025.

From the fires in Los Angeles to tornado outbreaks in the South and Midwest, the U.S. experienced extreme and sometimes deadly weather in 2025. NBC News’ Angie Lassman details the historic events.

The U.S. may have escaped hurricane landfalls this year, but the country made up for it with the L.A. fires, floods, and tornado outbreaks. Those remind me of what I wrote last year.

Seeing this reminds me of the first two questions I ask my students while watching Chasing Ice.

1. Chasing Ice opens with a montage of natural disasters. Name three of them.

The three that come to mind are floods, fires, and droughts. All of those, along with dangerous heatwaves and stronger hurricanes and tropical cyclones, appear in this report. For what it's worth, those are also among the possible answers to a question I ask about Treasures of the Earth: Power: "What are the expected effects of global warming? List three examples."

Speaking of global warming/ climate change, WION reported 2025 Among Hottest Years Ever Recorded | WION Climate Tracker.

2025 was one of three hottest years on record, scientists say. Headlines from ABC News Live[.] Catch up on the developing stories making headlines. Climate change worsened by human behavior made 2025 one of the three hottest years on record, scientists said.

I'm closing by repeating something else I wrote last year.

First, welcome to the 400 ppm world. Second, are you scared enough by climate change? My readers should be.

Stay tuned for one more year-end retrospective of 2025 for New Year's Eve.