The Northern Hemisphere is experiencing a red Christmas

2025 is ending with more smashed climate records, as large parts of the Northern Hemisphere recorded their highest December temperatures on record:

ABSOLUTE MADNESS
Night Minimums up to 64F in Illinois
NIGHT TEMPERATURES TYPICAL OF JULY

Hundreds oF records pulverized allover Central States with up to 8F margins
and the weekend will be hotter,in some areas much hotter.

It s the most extreme event in US climatic history. pic.twitter.com/nG6Y60X9fk

— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) December 26, 2025

Record heat

As the Guardian reported, 25 December saw the US hit its warmest Christmas Day on record — what you might call a ‘red Christmas’.

Meteorologists have attributed the extreme weather to a ‘heat dome’ in which high pressure has trapped warm air near the surface.

Record temperatures from Christmas day included Oklahoma City, which hit 25°C (77°F). Additional records have fallen since then:

EXTRAORDINARY SUMMER NIGHT

Hundreds of records warm night in over a dozen States again
MINIMUMS up to
71F in Texas
70 Louisiana
66 Arkansas,Kentucky and Georgia
65 Tennessee
64 Oklahoma and MIssissippi
63 Missouri
62 Alabama

Millions with AC for Xmas holidays: A total insanity https://t.co/NvPK0CcwN5

— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) December 26, 2025

Temperatures have also hit record highs in Iceland:

At about 11 a.m. on Christmas Eve, Seyðisfjörður in eastern Iceland recorded 19.8°C, the highest December temperature ever measured in Iceland, according to RUV. pic.twitter.com/HNkIYRNwum

— Joakim 🌹🇳🇴🇪🇺 (@joakial_) December 25, 2025

This temperature anomaly over the Northern Hemisphere, especially the USA and Iceland is pretty nuts. Heat records for Christmas and December are being smashed all over pic.twitter.com/5UihD6xJNo

— Stefan Burns (@StefanBurnsGeo) December 26, 2025

While the Northern Hemisphere experiences Winter, the Southern experiences summer. And as people have highlighted, the upside down temperatures in the North aren’t always corresponding with a similar flip below the equator:

HISTORIC HEAT IN AFRICA
Records smashed continously,allover

December records today:38.8 Magaria and Goure in NIGER
Every single country has been smashing records since Day #1 and will get worse next days.

It's the most extreme event ever recorded anywhere in the tropics. https://t.co/hMRLcj52qc

— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) December 26, 2025

Australia, however, has experienced record-breaking low temperatures for December:

If many Americans feel a touch of summer in winter, some Australians are feeling a touch of winter in summer.
Very cold conditions in the SE

Only 1.8C in Flinders Island,Tasmania – a cold record for December and 5C below winter average!

5.6C Low Head also record pic.twitter.com/0XEG6IxzyI

— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) December 26, 2025

Climate change

‘Global warming’ is the phenomenon of average global temperatures increasing year on year. Berkley visualised this in the following graph:

‘Climate change’ is what happens to climate systems as a result of rising temperatures and other factors. Essentially, climate change results in more chaotic climate and weather patterns, which is why we’re more likely to see both record heat and record cold. It’s also why extreme weather events are more common:

Perpetual reminder: extreme rainfall events increase due to #globalheating. Weather station data show what has been predicted for over 30 years by climate scientists. These extremes are now far outside the historical climate.
Study: https://t.co/B4Ac8DBpyX https://t.co/Na0KDgvny8

— Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf 🌏 🦣 (@rahmstorf) December 26, 2025

The following graph from Statista demonstrates that the frequency of floods, storms, and extreme temperatures have all spiked in the past few decades in Europe:

The following from Visual Capitalist shows something similar for the US:

While we can’t conclusively link individual weather events to climate change, we can state that the phenomenon is causing the increased frequency of them. While we’ve made significant progress on our ability to de-carbonise, however, the US has recently ‘gone into reverse’:

HUMANITY IS RAPIDLY EVOLVING into a solar-powered civilization—with China leading the way and the United States making a u-turn to go backwards, a new book says.

Fully 95% of new generating capacity for planet Earth last year came from next-generation clean sources, says 'Here… pic.twitter.com/AXKiI3IyOU

— Nury Vittachi (@NuryVittachi) December 26, 2025

Featured image via Tropical Tidbits