Global temperatures in 2025 were cooler than in 2024 due to La Niña, a natural Pacific weather event. However, the last three years remain the hottest on record, nearing key climate limits. New data from Europe's Copernicus climate service and the UK's Met Office shows the 2025 global average was over 1.4°C above pre-industrial levels from the late 1800s, before large fossil fuel use began. "If we go twenty years into the future and we look back at this period of the mid-2020s, we will see these years as relatively cool," said Dr Samantha Burgess, deputy director of Copernicus. Despite the slight cooling, 2025 stayed much warmer than a decade ago due to ongoing carbon emissions heating Earth. Prof Rowan Sutton, director of the Met Office Hadley Centre, said, "We understand very well that if we continue to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the concentrations of those gases increase in the atmosphere, and the planet responds by warming." Extreme weather events like the Los Angeles fires and Hurricane Melissa in 2024 were linked to global warming effects. The world is edging close to breaking the 1.5°C warming limit set by 200 countries in 2015. Burgess warned, "Looking at the most recent data, it looks like we'll exceed that 1.5 degree level of long-term warming by the end of this decade." Natural weather swings like El Niño warm the globe, while La Niña cools slightly. El Niño helped boost 2023 and 2024 temps, but La Niña cooled 2025. Still, the heat staying high during La Niña is "a little worrying," said Dr Zeke Hausfather of Berkeley Earth. The big temperature jump since 2023 surprises scientists. Some theories cite changes in clouds and particles that reflect less sun energy. Hausfather said, "There might be some mysteries that we haven't fully solved." Sutton added, "We are seeing rapid warming at the upper end of our longer-term expectations." More data is needed to understand if this trend will continue long term. Scientists stress the future isn't fixed. Sutton said, "We can strongly affect what happens... both by mitigating climate change - that's by cutting greenhouse gas emissions - and by adapting, by making society more resilient."