Record-setting heat in 2025 creates warmest year in Arizona

In the last year, Earth logged its third-warmest year, while the United States experienced its fourth-warmest year. Phoenix felt 2025’s record-setting heat more than most cities. The Valley of the Sun faced its second-warmest year, according to the National Weather Service.

The significance of the record-setting temperatures in every county throughout Arizona had one of its warmest years on record, according to 131 years of observation.

Six of those counties – Coconino, Graham, Mohave, Pinal, Pima, and Yavapai – logged their warmest years yet, while the remaining counties ranked within the top four.

Randy Cerveny, a Climatologist at Arizona State University, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss the impact these record-breaking statistics will have across Arizona.

“…having had such a horrible summer in 2024,” Cerveny said, “…we were thinking that this one wasn’t so bad, and it turns out to be the second warmest.”

According to Cerveny, the United States had the fourth-warmest year on record, and the entire world as a whole had the third-warmest year on record.

“That’s kind of one of the key points about global warming,” Cerveny explained, “…if you had just one place, or two places, and it was occasionally happening, you would, oh well, it’s not anything to worry about. It’s the entire planet that’s having these conditions.”

Cerveny emphasized how many places all over the globe are experiencing strange and unusual weather. South America and Africa are having some of their hottest years on record, and many countries in Asia are experiencing typhoons in 2025.

“…and it’s not just that they’re experiencing that, it’s happening more frequently,” Cerveny said, “…when you start to see these things happening year after year after year, you realize something is happening.”

As fossil fuels have come into question, Cerveny explained that scientists were puzzled as they predicted last year was going to be a “La Niña” year. La Niña means a cold Pacific Ocean, and meant Earth should have experienced a colder year last year.

“We were the third hottest year on record across the globe, even with La Niña,” Cerveny explained, “…things are happening that are not natural, and we are the cause of it.