Posted on December 2nd, 2025

Apollo News Snippets – December 2025

In October 2025, warmer than average temperatures were seen over large parts of northern and western Europe. The most pronounced positive anomalies were recorded over northern Fennoscandia, as well as over the southern Iberian Peninsula. Below-average temperatures were mostly experienced over southeastern Europe. Outside Europe, the largest positive temperature anomalies were recorded over both polar regions, as well as over the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau. In the Arctic, anomalies were more than 8°C above average over the Canadian archipelago, around Baffin Bay and over the central Arctic Ocean with below average sea ice cover. Most of eastern Antarctica saw much warmer than average temperatures, with large regions seeing values also more than 8°C above average. (Image Credit: Copernicus Earth Observation Programme)
  • While the NOAA global climate report is offline due to the US government shutdown, lets pivot to the European version of this report. The Copernicus Earth Observation Programme’s environmental report for October 2025 reveals further proof that global climate change remains a concern. According to the ERA5 dataset, globally October 2025 was 0.70°C warmer than the 1991-2020 average for October, with an absolute surface air temperature of 15.14°C. October 2025 was the third warmest October on record, 0.16°C cooler than the record October of 2023 and only 0.11°C cooler than October 2024. October 2025 also was 1.55°C warmer than an estimate of the pre-industrial October average for 1850-1900. Globally, the annual average for the latest 12-month period (November 2024 to October 2025) was 0.62°C above the 1991-2020 average and 1.50°C above the estimated 1850-1900 average used to define the pre-industrial level.
  • The winter holidays are upon us and many homeowners decorate their properties for the holidays. Whether it’s an inflatable snowman out front, lit outlines of Rudolph and the rest of the reindeer propped up on the ground, or a Santa figure in a giant snow globe, there are plenty of decorations available to brighten the dull and dreary month of December. Some people love driving around, checking out other people’s holiday displays. Instead of looking for a glow of lights in the distance that would make Clark Griswold proud, there are interactive maps created by GIS that pinpoint the Christmas light displays. The maps also can be used for holiday tours, contests and to showcase larger public installations. Whiteside County, Illinois, uses the platform ArcGIS StoryMaps to highlight the Christmas light displays in its jurisdiction. Coon Rapids, Minnesota, also uses the same platform to map out the homes with displays worthy of a drive-by. Columbia County, Georgia, not only uses GIS to map out where properties are located with Christmas lights, but also offers driving directions for their full Christmas light tour by using zip codes. The city of Boston put together an ArcGIS StoryMap to show the locations of Christmas trees, along with dates and times for tree lightings around the city. Other large cities with holiday light display maps include Denver, Phoenix, and Vancouver, just to name a few. There’s also The Original Christmas Light Finder, a searchable database of the most decorated homes, communities, businesses, parks and drive-thru displays around the world.

Brock Adam McCarty
Map Wizard
(720) 470-7988
brock@apollomapping.com

This entry was posted in The Geospatial Times and tagged , , Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    The Geospatial Times Archive