MAIN WEATHER AND CLIMATE TRAITS IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE AS OF NOVEMBER 2025

Air Temperature 

The weather in the ETR was abnormally warm almost all November. Average air temperature anomalies were 2-5° or higher in the first decade of the month, and 2-7° or more in the second and third decades. New daily temperature maxima were recorded in the Russian North, Central Russia, the Volga region, the Lower Volga, the Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories, the North Caucasian republics, Crimea, and the Azov region.

In the Urals, the decade-averaged air temperature was close to normal or even slightly less than that in the first decade only, but the extreme warmth which arrived in the region later on resulted in temperature averages 6-9 or more degrees higher than the normal value. The all-time temperature maxima were measured in the Sverdlovsk and Kurgan Regions and in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District.

In Siberia, the weather in November was abnormally cold in the north and abnormally warm in the south, with the decade-averaged temperatures 2-6° below normal in the north and about the same value above in the south.

The month was cold in most of the Far East, especially in the north of the region where the frosts in Yakutia and Kolyma reached -45…-50°, and the decade-averaged air temperatures were 3-7° lower than normal. The weather in the south of the Far East was somewhat colder than usual in the first half of the month, but the subsequent advent of heat led to average temperature anomalies of +2…5° or higher in the last decade of November.

In the outcome, the monthly-averaged air temperature in November was 2-6° above normal in the ETR and 2-4° above in Southern Siberia, but was much lower in Northern Siberia and in most of the Far East. In the ETR, this November was the second warmest in the history of regular meteorological observations since 1891, yielding just 0.1° to November 2013. Also, it was the second warmest in the Southern, North-Caucasian and Volga Federal Districts, and the third warmest in the Central Federal one. However, the average air temperature in Russia, being above the normal value, was not significantly higher than that due to abnormally cold eastern part of the country, and took a position in the third ten of the highest-ranked monthly averages for November.

November marked the end of calendar autumn. It turned out to be all-time warm in the ETR, with the average air temperature equal to the maximum set in 2024. This autumn was also record-breaking in the Volga region, and 2-5° or more degrees warmer than normal in the ETR from the Barents and Kara Seas to North Caucasus. East of the Urals, autumn was cool: 1-2° colder than usual in the north of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, in Yakutia and Chukotka. In the southern regions of Western Siberia and of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, as well as in Trans-Baikal and Primorye, the average autumn temperatures were close to normal, yet 1-2° higher than that in some places.

As of the Asian continent, abnormal warmth in its east was observed in Mongolia and north-eastern China where the monthly-averaged temperature was two or more degrees higher than normal; in Japan and the Korean Peninsula, it was close to normal, and in the north of China, lower than usual.

Also, cool weather spread to the countries of South-East Asia due to poor visibility of the Sun screened by frequent downpours, to be discussed below.

The weather was also cold in a large part of South Asia. The average air temperature in northern India was 2° lower than the normal value.

In the Near and Middle East, a heat wave rare for this time of year was detected, with new temperature highs in Israel and also in Armenia where the air temperature in November exceeded +20° for the first time. The temperature averages in Turkey, in the countries of Levant and of South Caucasus, as well as in northern Iran were 2-3 or more degrees above normal.

But even higher anomalies were reported in Central Asia where new temperature maxima were measured as well. There, the November temperature averages exceeded the normal figure by 2-6° in Kazakhstan or by two or more degrees in the republics of Middle Asia.

Regarding most of Africa in the Northern Hemisphere, the monthly-averaged air temperature in November matched its normal value, but exceeded it by some two or more degrees in a number of territories: in Egypt, in northern Sudan or in individual regions of Morocco.

The air temperature in most of Europe was close to normal as well, but the weather in the east of the continent (in Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece) was noticeably warmer than usual, by 2-3 or more degrees on the average. In Ukraine, the record-breaking temperature highs were observed, while in the north of Scandinavia, the frosts reached -20…-25° on occasional days.

In Canada, the previous record-breaking average temperature in November measured in 2016 was regained again to exceed the normal value by 2-6 or more degrees. Temperatures in the central and western states of the US and in the north of Mexico were two or more degrees higher than normal.

This November, the Arctic was warmer than usual by more than 1.5°, or by 4-6° in the sectors which belong to Canada, Greenland or western Russia. Due to this, the monthly-averaged temperature hit the top five highest in the history of observations. 

November 2025 in the Northern Hemisphere became the third warmest in the meteorological history after 2024 and 2023, with the same rank for autumn as a whole, which was very warm in the North-American continent (with +2…6° anomalies) as well as in eastern Europe and European Russia (with +2° or higher anomalies). This autumn was the warmest in the meteorological history of Canada, and the third warmest in the US or in China.

In Moscow, the average air temperature was +3.8° implying an anomaly of +4.3° and its third position in the meteorological annals of the capital where it was higher in 1996 and 2013 only. Autumn 2025 was also very warm, with the temperature average reproducing the 2020 record: these years were at the second line of the ranking list drawn since 1891, and autumn 2024 remained the leader.

 

 

Sea Surface Temperature

 

This November, the water area occupied by negative SST anomalies kept on expanding in the equatorial Pacific, sometimes up to locations north of 10-20N, i.e., to tropical latitudes. The average SST anomaly of the equatorial Pacific in the Northern Hemisphere reduced noticeably. Positive SST anomalies mostly preserved in the tropical and temperate latitudes, amounting to +2…3° or more in some places. Abnormally cold water was identified in the Sea of Okhotsk, and off the coasts of Japan and of the Kuril Islands.

The average SST of the Atlantic Ocean in the Northern Hemisphere remained at the level of the previous months of the year, and did not reach extreme values. Almost everywhere, SST anomalies were positive, exceeding +1° in the central and northern parts of the Ocean. Water was very warm at the junction of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. SST anomalies were +2…3 or more degrees in the Barents and Kara Seas, and exceeded +1…2° in the marginal seas of Europe.

According to the WMO, the area covered last winter by Arctic sea ice reached 13.8 million km²: the minimum value for the entire history of long-distance instrumental observations. The summer minimum was significantly lower than the average measured for many years.

 

 

Precipitation

 

This November, the central and northern regions of the ETR, the Urals, Siberia and the south of the Far East received either normal amounts of atmospheric moisture, or substantially greater than those in some locations.

In the ETR, a shortage of precipitation was only observed in the Southern and North-Caucasian Federal Districts as well as in the Luhansk and Donetsk Republics, with no precipitation at all in some regions of the North Caucasus. Elsewhere, precipitation of high intensity was measured on some days, and new maxima of daily totals were set in the Black Earth region, in the Smolensk and Arkhangelsk Regions, in the Komi and Tatarstan Republics, and in Moscow. The monthly precipitation totals in the Vologda, Kostroma, Smolensk and Kirov Regions, in the Komi and Mari El Republics, in Chuvashia, Tatarstan, Udmurtia and the Perm Territory were 1.5 or more times the normal quantity.

Precipitation was normal in most of the Urals, exceeding the normal value by 1.5 times in the north only, namely, in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District.

The same anomalies of monthly precipitation totals were observed in the south of Siberia (Omsk, Novosibirsk and Kemerovo Regions, Altai Territory, and Republic of Tyva), with new maxima of daily totals recorded in places.

Across the huge territory of the Far East Federal District, monthly precipitation totals varied a lot, ranging from their apparent scarcity in the north (Yakutia, Kolyma and Chukotka) to an abundance in excess of 1.5 times the normal value in the south (Buryatia, the Trans-Baikal and the Amur region). Precipitation was normal in the Primorye and Khabarovsk Territories, in Sakhalin and Kamchatka. Very heavy precipitation in the form of rain, sleet, wet or regular snow was observed in Kamchatka, in the Primorye and Trans-Baikal where its totals accumulated in a couple of days were equivalent to 50 mm of rainwater.

In East Asia, normal or above-normal precipitation was only measured in Mongolia and southern China whereas the weather in the other areas was dry.

Prolonged rains, of torrential character in addition, hit the countries of South-East Asia. In some Vietnam locations, more than 400 mm of precipitation fell per day, or more than 1000 mm in a few days, causing floods that have been called the most devastating in the past thirty years. An unprecedented amount of precipitation fell in Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia, submerging a number of settlements or the entire provinces under water, and boosting the monthly precipitation totals to 2-3 or more times the normal figure in places. In Indonesia, heavy rains led to floods on the island of Sumatra, reportedly, the most catastrophic floods over the last decades.

As the Indian monsoon expired, the weather in most of South Asia became dry. Rain fell solely in southern India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The monthly precipitation totals in the latter country were 2-3 or more times greater than the normal value; this resulted in flooding and landslides.

Dry weather settled in the Near and Middle East as well as in Central Asia, with severe drought in Iran, and the regions with no precipitation during the autumn in Israel.

Similarly, the weather was dry across most of the African continent in the Northern Hemisphere. Sparse rains fell on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Guinea, and probably reached the normal figure in northern Egypt only.

Precipitation in most of European countries was normal. Abundant rains fell in Spain and Portugal. At the end of the month, extreme snowfalls descended upon the Alpine regions of Austria, Switzerland and Germany. The snow cover in some places could increase by 20-30 cm per day. At the same time, rain deluged Italy and the Balkans, adding up to 50-80 mm of daily atmospheric moisture in places.

In most of the North-American continent, precipitation was scarce, basically received by the eastern provinces of Canada, and by the central and western states of the US: there, the monthly precipitation totals were normal or above that.

In Moscow, the monthly precipitation total in November was 72 mm, corresponding to an anomaly of 138%. In autumn (September-November), 177 mm of precipitation fell in the capital, fitting within the normal limits.

 

Hydrometcentre of Russia