Searing heatwaves, icy snowstorms, thunderstorms and auroras were some of the weather events that hit different parts of the world in a big opening week of 2025.

Australia is no stranger to extreme heat in January as mid-summer sunshine sends temperatures soaring over the country’s vast interior. The first week of this year was particularly hot due to the absence of any monsoon cloud cover in the tropics.

Temperatures climbed as high as 45.8°C in Australia during the first week of 2025, at both Bedourie in Queensland and Oodnadatta in South Australia.

Image: Modelled maximum air temperatures over Australia on January 5, 2025.

Parts of Africa have also been sweating through the first week of 2025, with daytime temperatures hitting the mid-forties and nights also featuring oppressive warmth. Some places in Madagascar and Mozambique broke national records for high minimum temperatures in the past week as overnight lows stayed close to 30°C.

While parts of the southern hemisphere were endured intense heat in the past week, some places in the northern hemisphere have been absolutely freezing.

Temperatures in eastern Russia dropped below -55°C in the opening days of 2025 as a large pool of bitterly cold air caused temperatures to plummet across the Yana-Oymyakon Highlands. This new year cold snap caused temperatures to reach -56°C at Oymyakon and -59°C at Tegyulte.

Image: Modelled 2-metre air temperature on January 2, 2025, showing a blob of very cold air over eastern Russia. Source: ClimateReanalyzer.org

Bitterly cold weather also hit parts of Europe and the US at the start of 2025.

Cold air surging across the US caused temperatures to drop below -30°C in the past week, reaching as low as -34.4°C (-30°F) at Lake Metigoshe in North Dakota. This cold outbreak produced widespread snow, ice and freezing rain across central and eastern parts of the US.

Across the North Atlantic, the Met Office were also kept busy throughout the first week of the year as rain and snow prompted a slew of yellow and amber weather warnings across the UK. The wintry system dumped more than 10 cm of snow in parts of England.

Skies were also alight during the first week of 2025 as nature showed that you don’t need fireworks to usher in a new year.

A geomagnetic storm impacting Earth caused auroras to become visible at high latitudes. The images below were captured from Victoria in southern Australia on the first night of 2025. While not technically weather, auroral displays rely on gases in Earth’s atmosphere to create the vivid colours seen in these photos.

Image: Aurora Australis visible over Bright, Vic on January 1, 2025. Source: @jamesofbright / Instagram

Image: Aurora Australis visible over Bright, Vic on January 1, 2025. Source: @jamesofbright / Instagram

Another spectacular display of light occurred in northern Australia early in the morning of January 6 as thunderstorms roared over the NT’s Top End. The image below captured lightning near Darwin in the early hours of the morning.

Image: Lightning near Darwin, NT on January 6, 2025. Source: @mmphotosaustralia / Instagram

The first week of 2025 has already produced a dynamic mix of extreme weather around the world. With a developing La Niña in the Pacific Ocean and record-breaking global ocean temperatures influencing weather patterns, we can expect to see more wild weather in the year ahead.