Top 10 weather events of 2025 that smashed records
The year of 2025 will be remembered as rewriting the history books, from hurricanes to cold snaps, snowstorms and heat waves.
AccuWeather takes a look at the Top Three videos of record breaking weather in 2025.
From extreme winds and heat to unprecedented snow and an unusual hurricane season, 2025 will be remembered as a year that continually rewrote the weather record books. In chronological order, here's a list of the top 10 record-breaking weather events of the year:
Jan. 20-22: Historic snowstorm blasts Gulf Coast
The year began with an unusual snowstorm on the Gulf Coast on Jan. 20-22, causing the Florida Panhandle to temporarily beat Alaska's seasonal snowfall.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime event for a lot of these folks down there," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Tom Kines said.
New all-time total snowfall records were set at New Orleans, with 8 inches; Mobile, Alabama, with 7.5 inches; and Pensacola, Florida, with 8.9 inches. The 13.4 inches at Grand Coteau, Louisiana, also set a new state record, as did 9.8 inches of snow at Milton, Florida.
Jan. 23-24: 'Generational' bomb cyclone slams UK, Ireland
A bomb cyclone hit Ireland and the United Kingdom and Ireland in late January, preliminarily setting a new wind record for Ireland of 114 mph. In the U.K., winds gusted to 100 mph. Power cuts to 715,000 buildings were reported in Ireland.
February: Global sea ice reaches new record low
Global sea ice reached a new record low in February, reported on March 11, 2025, by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. This data, which combines the extent of sea ice from the Arctic and Antarctic, has records that date back to the late 1970s. Scientists attributed the new record to an Arctic heat wave in February, which prevented the normal growth of ice that month.
Map of Arctic Ocean sea ice at 2024 summer minimum extent, compared to the median extent from 1981-2010. (NOAA)
March: The windiest March on record
Almost every city east of the Rockies had its windiest March on record, the National Weather Service (NWS) said on April 9, 2025. The wind peaked on March 14, when extreme winds in the Central U.S. led to destructive wildfires, sun-blocking dust storms and massive pileups.
More than 1,500 reports of wind damage were sent to the NWS by spotters, law enforcement, and the media. Throughout March, the NWS issued 124 high wind watches and 164 high wind warnings, both records for any month since records began in the 1980s.
June 20: First EF5 tornado since 2013 tears through North Dakota
The first EF5 tornado in 12 years tore through Enderlin, North Dakota, on June 20, with winds of 210 mph. It took until Oct. 6 for the National Weather Service in Grand Forks, North Dakota, to confirm the tornado as an EF5, the highest rating possible on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.
The tornado killed three people and was more than a mile wide — leaving a massive scar on satellite images. The EF5 was one of 25 tornadoes that night, which also featured a derecho and post-derecho high winds across much of North Dakota.
June 19-25: Over 3,000 high temperature records set
Summer came on early with a powerful heat wave between June 19 and 25, 2025. The week-long heat wave set over 3,000 daily record-high temperatures in towns across the nation, with some spots measuring their hottest June or all-time temperatures.
"This is an incredibly hot and steamy heat wave for the month of June," AccuWeather Chief On-Air Meteorologist Bernie Rayno said.
Daily high temperature records set between Jun 19 and June 25, 2025. (NOAA/NCDC)
Boston and Philadelphia experienced their hottest days since 2011 and 2012, respectively. Illustrating how unusual and early the heat wave was, a thermometer in Augusta, Maine, recorded 100 degrees, tying its all-time record high set on Aug. 5, 1955. It joined 19 other stations where the temperature had never been higher since record-keeping began.
July 4: Deadly, record flooding at Camp Mystic, Texas
Flash floods in Texas killed at least 89 people and left dozens unaccounted for on July 4 when the Guadalupe River surged out of its banks following torrential rain. The slice of central Texas called 'Flash Flood Alley' is home to many flood-prone cities, including Camp Mystic, where dozens of children perished during the Fourth of July flooding.
Nearly a foot of rain fell in the Kerrville area between July 3-7, 2025. The highest rainfall total in the state was 22.7 inches, measured 30 miles northwest of Austin near Bertram, Texas. The NWS river gauge on the Guadalupe at Hunt, Texas, 6 miles northwest of Camp Mystic, rose nearly 30 feet in six hours, peaking at 37.52 feet, the highest on record, beating the previous high of 36.6 feet set in 1932.
July 31: World's longest lightning flash confirmed as new record
A 515-mile-long lightning strike that traveled from Texas to Missouri in 2017 was confirmed as a new world record by the World Meteorological Organization on July 31, 2025.
The flash, a term for lightning inside a cloud that does not hit the ground, moved from northern Texas into Missouri and was part of a large complex of thunderstorms, on Oct. 22, 2017. This new lightning flash beats the previous record of 477 miles set by a flash on April 29, 2020.
Oct. 28: Hurricane Melissa's 252-mph wind gust sets new record
The National Center for Atmospheric Research confirmed on Nov. 20 that a 252-mph wind gust measured in Hurricane Melissa set a new record for the highest wind speed reported by a dropsonde — a weather instrument released by Hurricane Hunter aircraft.
The 252-mph wind gust measured by the dropsonde in Hurricane Melissa was recorded at 827 feet (250 meters) above the ocean on Oct. 28, the same day Melissa made landfall in Jamaica as a Category 5 storm. Hurricane Melissa was the third-most intense hurricane ever observed in the Caribbean, and the strongest storm in recorded history to strike Jamaica.
Nov. 30: Atlantic season ends with no US hurricane landfalls
The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season was the first in a decade without a single hurricane landfall in the United States.
Tropical Storm Chantal was the only named storm to make landfall in the U.S. Of the five hurricanes this season, three intensified into Category 5 storms — Erin, Humberto and Melissa — one shy of the record four set during the blockbuster 2005 hurricane season.
“The U.S. benefited from a combination of unique atmospheric conditions, the timing of cold fronts pushing across the East Coast and a lot of luck to make it through the peak of the season without a single hurricane landfall," AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter said.
It wasn't unprecedented, but there was a double hurricane threat that may have saved the East Coast. Hurricane Humberto spun just a few hundred miles to the east of Imelda in September. The influence of the stronger hurricane tugged on Imelda, eventually steering it away from land and likely averting a flooding disaster in the southeastern U.S.
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