PARIS: Central Asia, the Sahel region, and northern Europe experienced their hottest year on record in 2025, according to AFP analysis based on data from the European Copernicus programme.

Globally, the last 12 months are expected to be the third hottest ever recorded after 2024 and 2023, according to the provisional data, which will be confirmed by Copernicus in its annual report in early January.

But the average, which includes land and oceans, masks the overall records for certain parts of the world.

Many poorer nations do not publish detailed climate data, so AFP has completed the global picture by independently analysing Copernicus data from climate models, measurements from about 20 satellites, and weather stations.

The data spans the whole world, hour by hour, since 1970.

Here is what the detailed analysis revealed for 2025, during which 120 monthly temperature records were broken in more than 70 countries.

Records shattered in Central Asia

Every country in Central Asia broke its annual temperature records.

Landlocked, mountainous Tajikistan, where only 41% of the population has access to safe drinking water, saw the highest abnormal temperatures in the world, at more than 3C above its seasonal averages from 1981 to 2010.

Monthly temperature records have been broken every month since May, with the exception of November.

Neighbouring countries such as Kazakhstan, Iran and Uzbekistan experienced temperatures 2C to 3C above the seasonal average.

Up to 1.5C hotter in Sahel

Temperature records were beaten in several countries in the Sahel and west Africa.

Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and Chad saw a rare divergence in temperatures, notching 0.7C to 1.5C above their seasonal average.

The last 12 months were the hottest ever recorded in Nigeria, and one of the fourth hottest in other countries.

Scientists from the World Weather Attribution (WWA) network, who assess the role of human-induced climate change in extreme weather events, wrote in their annual report published on Monday that extreme heat events “have become almost 10 times more likely since 2015”.

Countries in the Sahel — the semi-arid region of west and north-central Africa stretching from Senegal to Sudan — are among the most vulnerable to rising temperatures, with many already facing armed conflict, food insecurity and widespread poverty.

Scorching summer in Europe

Around 10 European countries are on the verge of, or coming close to, breaking their annual temperature record, notably due to an exceptional summer.

In Switzerland and several Balkan countries, summer temperatures were 2C and even 3C above their seasonal average.

Spain, Portugal, and Britain also recorded their worst summer on record, with extreme heat fuelling massive wildfires.

The driest spring in more than a century led to a UK water shortage.

Northern Europe was largely spared the heatwave that hit Europe at the end of June, but it instead experienced an abnormally warm autumn.

The last 12 months are expected to be one of the two warmest years on record in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland.

New Year’s Eve revellers toasted the end of 2025 on Wednesday, waving goodbye to 12 months packed with Trump tariffs, a Gaza truce and vain hopes for peace in Ukraine.

It was one of the warmest years on record, the stifling heat stoking wildfires in Europe, droughts in Africa and deadly rains across Southeast Asia.

There was a sombre tinge to party preparations in Australia’s harbour city Sydney, the self-proclaimed “New Year’s capital of the world”.

Barely two weeks have passed since a father and son allegedly opened fire on a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach, killing 15 people in the nation’s deadliest mass shooting for almost 30 years.

Parties will pause for a minute of silence at 11:00pm (1200 GMT) as the famed Sydney Harbour Bridge is bathed in white light to symbolise peace.

“It has been a difficult year for so many people,” said Steph Grant, a 32-year-old Sydney resident.

“Here’s hoping the world looks like a brighter place in 2026,” said Grant, who works in advertising.

Hundreds of thousands of spectators are expected to line Sydney’s foreshore as nine tonnes of fireworks explode on the stroke of midnight.

Security will be tighter than usual, with squads of heavily armed police patrolling the crowds.

Sydney kicks off a chain of celebrations stretching from glitzy New York to the Hogmanay festival on the chilly streets of Scotland.

More than two million people are expected to pack Brazil’s lively Copacabana Beach for what authorities have billed as the world’s biggest New Year’s Eve party.

Truce and tariffs

Labubu dolls became a worldwide craze in 2025, thieves plundered the Louvre in a daring heist, and K-pop heartthrobs BTS made their long-awaited return.

The world lost pioneering zoologist Jane Goodall, the Vatican chose a new pope, and the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk laid bare America’s deep political divisions.

Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, launching a tariff blitz that sent global markets into meltdown.

The US president used his Truth Social platform to lash out at his sliding approval ratings ahead of midterm elections in 2026.

“The polls are rigged,” he wrote, without providing evidence.

“Our Country is ‘hotter’ than ever before. Isn’t it nice to have a STRONG BORDER, No Inflation, a powerful Military, and great Economy??? Happy New Year!”

But many expect tough times to continue in 2026.

“The economic situation is also very dire, and I’m afraid I’ll be left without income,” said Ines Rodriguez, 50, a merchant in Mexico City.

“All our colleagues are in the same situation: very little work and not very profitable,” said Buenos Aires business owner Fernando Selvaggi, 61.

After two years of war that left much of the Gaza Strip in ruins, US pressure helped land a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in October.

But with each side already accusing the other of flagrant violations, no one is sure how long the break in hostilities will hold.

Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,200 people.

Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed more than 70,000, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, a figure the UN deems credible.

World leaders including China’s Xi Jinping and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin began exchanging New Year greetings.

Both countries have made much of their presidents’ supposedly close friendship, and Putin was an honoured guest at a spectacular Chinese military parade in September.

Xi said he was “ready to maintain close exchanges with Putin to jointly push for continuous new progress in bilateral ties”, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported Wednesday.

The war in Ukraine — sparked by Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 — meanwhile grinds towards its four-year anniversary in February.

There were hopes a renewed burst of diplomacy might produce a breakthrough this year.

But Russia shot down any notion of a temporary ceasefire in the final days of 2025.

As envoys shuttle between Moscow, Washington and Kyiv, one major obstacle remains: Ukraine is reluctant to give up land, and Russia is unwilling to give it back.

Sports, space and AI

The coming 12 months promise to be full of sports, space travel and serious questions over artificial intelligence.

More than 50 years since the last Apollo lunar mission, 2026 looks to be the year that humankind once again sets its sights towards the moon.

NASA’s Artemis II mission, backed by Elon Musk, plans to launch a crewed spacecraft that will circle that moon during a 10-day test flight.

After years of unbridled enthusiasm, artificial intelligence is starting to face mounting scrutiny.

Nervous investors are already questioning whether the years-long AI boom might be starting to resemble something more like a market bubble.

Athletes will gather on Italy’s famed Dolomites to hit the slopes for the Winter Olympics.

And for a brief few weeks between June and July, nations will come together for the biggest football World Cup in history.

For the first time, 48 teams will compete in the world’s most-watched sports event, playing in venues across the United States, Mexico and Canada.

From the beaches of Brazil to the far-flung reaches of New Zealand, the tournament is expected to draw millions of fans.

Protests over Iran’s soaring cost of living spread to several universities on Tuesday, with students joining shopkeepers and bazaar merchants, semi-official media reported, as the government offered dialogue with demonstrators.

Iran’s rial currency has lost nearly half its value against the dollar in 2025, with inflation reaching 42.5% in December in a country where unrest has repeatedly flared in recent years and which is facing US sanctions and threats of Israeli strikes.

President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a social media post late on Monday that he had asked the interior minister to listen to “legitimate demands” of protesters.

Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said a dialogue mechanism would be set up and include talks with protest leaders.

“We officially recognise the protests […] We hear their voices and we know that this originates from natural pressure arising from the pressure on people’s livelihoods,” she said on Tuesday in comments carried by state media.

Protesters March streets in Tehran

Video of protests, verified by Reuters as taking place in Tehran, showed scores of people marching along a street chanting “Rest in peace Reza Shah”, a reference to the founder of the royal dynasty ousted in the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Footage aired on Iranian state television on Monday showed people gathered in central Tehran chanting slogans.

The semi-official Fars News Agency reported that hundreds of students held protests on Tuesday at four universities in Tehran.

On social media, some Iranians voiced support for the protests with one, Soroosh Dadkhah, saying high prices and corruption had led people “to the point of explosion” and another, Masoud Ghasemi, warning of protests spreading across the country.

Iranian authorities have quashed previous bouts of unrest that have flared over issues ranging from the economy to drought, women’s rights and political freedoms, with violent security actions and widespread arrests.

The government has not said what form dialogue will take with the leaders of this week’s demonstrations, the first major protests since Israeli and US strikes on Iran in June, which prompted widespread expressions of patriotic solidarity.

Pezeshkian said in a meeting with trade unions and market activists on Tuesday that the government will do its best to resolve their issues and address their worries, according to state media.

Sanctions hammer economy

Iran’s economy has been in deep trouble for years after US sanctions were reimposed in 2018 when US President Donald Trump ended an international deal over the country’s nuclear programme during his first term in office.

United Nations sanctions on the country were reimposed in September and Reuters reported in October that several high-level meetings had been held on how to avert economic collapse, circumvent sanctions and manage public anger.

Economic disparities between ordinary Iranians and the clerical and security elite, along with economic mismanagement and state corruption — reported even by state media — have fanned discontent at a time when inflation is pushing many prices beyond the means of most people.

The currency slid to 1.4 million rials to the US dollar on Tuesday according to private exchange platforms, a record low after starting the year at 817,500 rials to the dollar.

Monthly annualised inflation figures have not dropped below 36.4% since the Iranian new year started in late March according to official figures.

On Monday the central bank chief resigned with Iranian media saying the government’s recent economic liberalisation policies had put pressure on the open-rate rial market, where ordinary Iranians buy foreign currency. Most businesses use official currency exchanges where the rial price is supported.

In 2022, Iran was buffeted by protests across the country over price hikes, including for bread, a major staple.

Over the same period and into 2023, the country’s clerical rulers faced the boldest unrest in years touched off by the death of a young Iranian Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of the morality police, who enforce strict dress codes.

Iran remains under intense international pressure, with Trump saying on Monday that he might back another round of Israeli airstrikes if Tehran resumed work on ballistic missiles or any nuclear weapons programme.

The US and Israel carried out 12 days of airstrikes on Iran’s military and its nuclear installations in June aimed at stopping what they believe were efforts to develop the means to build an atomic weapon.

Iran says its nuclear energy programme is entirely peaceful and that it has not tried to build a nuclear bomb.