Meteorological winter 2024-25 ranked 28th warmest on record. The warm signature was heavily influenced by the 4th warmest December on record to start meteorological winter. State rankings reveal seasonably cold climate from the Interior Northwest to the East Coast where all states were within normal range. The Upper Midwest and northern New England were marginally mild while the warm region was the Southwest U.S. where California and Arizona observed their 5th warmest winter on record.

Much above normal tropical cyclone activity is observed in the Indian Ocean during the 2024-25 tropical cyclone season. Slightly below normal activity is observed east of Australia despite recent Category-4 Major Hurricane Alfred.

Major drought is developing and will intensify in the Southwest U.S. and Middle East plus East China and West Tropical Africa based on the most recent Climate Impact Company 3-month global soil moisture outlook.

The U.S. arctic outbreaks in January and February were triggered by unconventional stratospheric warming events in that the warming was confined to Canada and the attendant polar vortex was locally generated, over North-central U.S. to cause the cold. Note that the stratosphere was cold on the Europe side of the North Pole. The March stratospheric warming event is stronger and across wider aerial coverage. However, the core of the warming is on the Siberia side of the North Pole therefore less reliably effective at generating North America cold.