Last month was the warmest February on record worldwide, making it the ninth month in a row with record temperatures for the time of year, scientists said.
Global sea surface temperatures are also at their highest ever recorded, data from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service shows.
The data shows February was 1.77C warmer than the pre-industrial average for the month, from 1850 to 1900, and 0.81C above 1991-2020 levels. The global average temperature for the past 12 months – between March 2023 and February 2024 – was the highest on record, at 1.56C above pre-industrial levels.
This puts the world temporarily above the 1.5C threshold beyond which, over the long term, the worst impacts of climate change are expected.
Daily global average temperatures were “exceptionally high” during the first half of the month, reaching 2C above 1850-1900 levels on four days from February 8 to 11, Copernicus said.
European temperatures in February 2024 were 3.3C above the 1991-2020 average for the month, with temperatures well above average in central and eastern Europe, the figures showed.
Europe’s winter, from December to February, was the second warmest on record for the continent.
Average global sea surface temperatures for February, outside the polar regions, were the highest for any month on record, at 21.06C, surpassing the previous record of 20.98C set in August 2023.
The average daily sea surface temperature reached a new absolute high of 21.09C at the end of the month, Copernicus said.
Carlo Buontempo, the director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said: “February joins the long series of records of the last few months. As remarkable as it may seem, it is not really surprising, as the continued warming of the climate system inevitably leads to new temperature extremes.
“The climate responds to the actual concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, so unless we manage to stabilize them, we will inevitably face new global temperature records and their consequences.”
Dr Friederike Otto, a senior lecturer in climate science at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment, Imperial College London, said: “There is now so much evidence to suggest that our climate is warming, if you want climate change deny. , you might as well claim the earth is flat too. Billions of measurements from weather stations, satellites, ships and airplanes point to the very basic fact that our planet is warming at a dangerous rate.
“People should not be surprised that we broke another record. Humans continue to burn oil, gas and coal, so the climate continues to warm. It is a very understandable relationship. There is no silver bullet or magic solution to climate change. We know what to do: stop burning fossil fuels and replace them with more sustainable, renewable energy sources. Until we do, extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change will continue to destroy lives and livelihoods.”
