Happy New Year, and welcome to 2025. The past week marked the end of a year of record heat globally, the end of a near record year for tornadoes in the U.S. and the passing of President Jimmy Carter, who left a conservation legacy.
Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to news about climate change, energy and the environment. I’m Dinah Voyles Pulver, a national correspondent on USA TODAY’s climate and environment team.
World weather organizations will release their final numbers on Jan. 10, but experts studying the data said it appears 2024 was the hottest year in the modern record. The warmth is thought to have contributed to some of the intensity and rainfall in the five landfalling hurricanes and the near record number of tornadoes across the nation over the past year.
Follow the devastation along Hurricane Helene’s path in this infographic. And, see some of the amazing images captured this year by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s GOES-16 satellite in this graphic by USA TODAY’s Janet Loehrke. Despite some who think Wisconsin may be “a climate haven,” the effects of climate change already are being felt there , wrote Caitlin Looby and Madeline Heim, at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The state endured record low ice on the Great Lakes last year and a soggy spring that became a deepening drought. Extremes in weather are expected to get more frequent, in Wisconsin and elsewhere.