Norway recorded its hottest year ever in 2025, following a strong summer heatwave and an unusually mild winter that started late in the year, the Norwegian Meteorological Institute said on Wednesday (January 7, 2026).
In another sign of climate change driven by human activity, the mercury hit 4°C in Longyearbyen, the main town of the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic, on December 22—warmer than both Seville and Ankara, which recorded temperatures of 3 and 1°C respectively on that day.
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“It’s actually a record-setting year,” said Hans Olav Hygen, a climatologist at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute.
“Many places in Norway had a record hot summer with a strong heatwave in July,” he said, adding, “This, of course, affects the full report, and we also saw before Christmas the fairly warm late autumn (and) start of the winter.”
