The warming of the planet continues to be unstoppable. Last month was the warmest February on record globally, with surface air temperatures averaging 13.54°C; that is, 0.81 °C above the average for the period 1991-2020 for this same month. It is a record record in absolute terms, as it has surpassed the records of February 2016. This is indicated by the EU’s Copernicus climate monitoring program.
The month of February has followed the same trend as the previous eight months, with a start in 2024 that is being rounded off by the hot year 2023.
All of this makes up a very long and unusual period of high temperatures caused by El Niño, a warming phenomenon originating from the equatorial Pacific with an impact on a large part of the planet; and to which are added the factors due to gas emissions that cause climate change caused by human activities by burning coal, oil and gas.
The result is that February has been the ninth consecutive warmest month on record for the respective month of the year, a streak that began in June 2023.
El Niño continued to weaken in the equatorial Pacific, as was seen in January, but overall marine air temperatures remained at an unusually high level.
“February joins the long streak of records in recent months. As remarkable as these results may seem, it is not really surprising, since the continued warming of the climate system inevitably leads to new extreme temperatures,” says Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S):
The global average temperature for the last twelve months (that is, from March 2023 to February 2024) is the highest ever recorded, to the point that it was 1.56 ° C above the pre-industrial average of 1850 -1900.
Thermometers were especially wild during the first half of the month, when they reached 2°C above 1850-1900 levels for four consecutive days (February 8-11)
In Europe, temperatures in February 2024 were 3.30°C above the February average for the period 1991-2020, and central and eastern Europe experienced much above-average temperatures.
Outside Europe, temperatures were above average in northern Siberia, central and northwestern North America, most of South America, across Africa and in western Australia.
“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 world temperature records and their consequences,” says Buontempo.
The global average sea surface temperature in February 2024 in the central latitudes was 21.06°C, the highest recorded so far for any month in the data set, surpassing even the previous record of August 2023 (20.98°C).
Sea surface temperature is defined over the ocean outside the wells at coordinates 60°S to 60°N, the range used as a standard reference for climate monitoring.
Copernicus highlights that persistently drier than average conditions were observed in February in southern and eastern Spain, southern France, Sicily and the Maghreb, much of Scandinavia, northwestern Russia and regions west of the Black Sea .
The extent of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has not been as low as in previous years (it was 2% below average), especially when compared to the minimum extent recorded in February 2018 (6% below average ). However, the February 2024 extent is well below the values ??observed in the 1980s and 1990s.
Sea ice concentrations were notably below average in the northern Barents Sea, but remained above average in the nearby Greenland Sea, a persistent feature since October.
For its part, Antarctic sea ice reached its third lowest extent in the satellite data record in February, 28% below average, not far from the historical minimum of February 2023 (when a cut in the 33%).
