2025 was the second-hottest year on record in Phoenix, according to National Weather Service data. Only 2024 had a hotter year-round average temperature. And climate change made a number of other impacts on Arizona last year.
The average temperature recorded at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport throughout 2025 was 78.1 degrees. The average temperature for 2024 was 78.6 degrees.
A very hot summer drove the average temperature up. Phoenix endured 122 days in triple-digit heat in 2025. On average since 1990, the Valley has typically gotten 111 days per year at or above 100.
But Phoenix’s year-round average temperature was not only made higher by extreme summer heat — nighttime and winter temperatures this year also did not drop as low as they normally do.
Overnight low temperatures during summer 2025 stayed far warmer than normal. Twenty-three nights in Phoenix never dropped out of the 90s. Typically, just seven nights a year are that warm.
And winter months in 2025 were also much warmer than normal. February 2025 tied the record for the hottest February ever in Phoenix, a full six degrees above normal. And last month was the hottest December on record in Phoenix, more than seven degrees above normal.
Human-caused climate change impacted Arizona in several other ways in 2025 as well, exacerbating conditions that led to the massive Dragon Bravo Fire at the Grand Canyon, severe flooding in Globe, a powerful microburst in Tempe, and ongoing drought throughout the Southwest, said Chris Lim, assistant professor of health sciences at the University of Arizona.
“Heat, floods, drought, wildfires and energy burden are not just separate problems. They are reinforcing each other,” Lim said on a call with reporters in December.
And unprecedented temperatures and more frequent disasters are putting more and more Arizonans at risk, said Arizona’s chief heat officer, Dr. Eugene Livar.
“Extreme weather and heat are a significant public health challenge of our time,” Livar said. “Heat is not just heat stroke. It overwhelms our first responders and emergency rooms, and harms our most vulnerable such as Arizona’s kids, the elderly, the unhoused, outdoor workers, and those with chronic illnesses.”
Policy interventions to prevent heat-related deaths did appear to make some impact in 2025, though. Some heat deaths are still under investigation, but the number of heat deaths in Maricopa County appears on-track to be lower than the previous two years.
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