Heat record broken for ninth consecutive month

Last month was the planet’s warmest February on record and the ninth consecutive month of record-breaking temperatures, according to data released Thursday.

February was more than 1.7 degrees Celsius warmer than an average February in preindustrial times, reported Copernicus, the European Union’s climate monitoring service.

The average global surface air temperature during the month was 13.54 degrees Celsius — or about 56 degrees Fahrenheit — and beats the previous warmest February, which was recorded in 2016.

The month was also part of a record-warm twelve-month period, according to the service, which reported that “the global-average temperature for the past twelve months is the highest on record, at 0.68 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average.”

The record-breaking temperatures reflect the long-term impacts of climate change and this winter’s El Niño, which was predicted to be historically strong.

“February joins the long streak of records in the last few months. As remarkable as this might appear, it is not really surprising as the continuous warming of the climate system inevitable leads to new temperature extremes,” Carlo Buontempo, the director of Copernicus, said in a statement, first reported by CNN.

According to the report, the daily global temperature was “exceptionally high” during the first half of February and was 2 degrees Celsius warmer than preindustrial periods for four consecutive days, Feb. 8-11.

The month’s average global sea surface temperatures measured at 21.06 degrees Celsius, the warmest of any month in the data set and higher than the previous record of 20.98 degrees Celsius set in August 2023.

The report’s findings come after a record warm 2023; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed that 2023 was the hottest single year ever recorded.

Another new study warned that as temperatures continue to rise, Arctic Ocean sea ice is melting at an even faster pace than previously thought, and the region could experience its first ice-free conditions sometime before the 2030s.