Another hottest month: February breaks record of historic high temperatures

Last month was the warmest February on record globally, the ninth straight month of historic high temperatures across the planet as climate change steers the world into “uncharted territory”, Europe’s climate monitor said Thursday.

The last year has seen an onslaught of storms, crop-withering drought and devastating fires, as human-caused climate change — intensified by the naturally-occurring El Nino weather phenomenon — stoked warming to likely the hottest levels in over 100,000 years.

Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) service last month said the period from February 2023 to January 2024 marked the first time Earth had endured 12 consecutive months of temperatures 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter than the pre-industrial era.

That trend has continued, it confirmed in its latest monthly update, with February as a whole 1.77C warmer than the monthly estimate for 1850-1900, the pre-industrial reference period.

Temperatures spiked across swathes of the planet in February, from Siberia to South America, with Europe also registering its second warmest winter on record.

In the first half of the month, daily global temperatures were “exceptionally high”, Copernicus said, with four consecutive days registering averages 2C higher than pre-industrial times — just months after the world registered its first single day above that limit.