(CN) — Last month was the warmest February on record globally, the ninth month in a row of record heat, the European Union's climate change agency said Thursday.
For the past year the planet has been experiencing the warmest period ever recorded as a strong El Niño and the effects of climate change combine to wallop the planet, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
“February joins the long streak of records of the last few months,” said Carlo Buontempo, the Copernicus director. “As remarkable as this might appear, it is not really surprising as the continuous warming of the climate system inevitably leads to new temperature extremes.”
February was 0.81 degrees Celsius (1.45 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than average and beat the previous record set in 2016 by 0.12 C (0.21 F), the agency said in its latest report.
Compared to the average temperature of the planet before large-scale industrialization and the start of human-caused climate change, February was 1.77 C (3.18 F) warmer, Copernicus said.
Copernicus uses data between 1991 and 2020 as a baseline to calculate average temperatures for the industrial era and estimates between 1850 and 1900 for averages in the pre-industrial era. The agency gathers its data from a fleet of satellites and weather stations around the world.
Over the past 12 months, the planet endured the highest temperatures on record at 0.68 C (1.22 F) above the 1991-2020 average and 1.56 C (2.8 F) above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average, Copernicus said.
The first half of February was exceptionally warm with temperatures reaching 2 C (3.6 F) above the pre-industrial average on four days in a row, the agency said.
It was particularly warm in Europe where it was 3.3 C (5.94 F) above the 1991-2020 average for February.
The record warmth has worsened drought conditions in the western Mediterranean basin. In Catalonia, Andalusia and Valencia tough water restrictions are in place after three dry years.
This long stretch of global heat is attributed to climate change and a strong El Niño pattern. El Niños are associated with warmer temperatures and more unpredictable and violent weather. Copernicus said the El Niño that emerged early last year is weakening.
This is the planet's first time going through a monthslong period warmer than 1.5 C (2.7 F) compared to 1850-1900. Breaching that mark is significant because governments pledged to keep global warming from exceeding 1.5 C when they signed the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Scientists warn the planet faces irreversible damage if global temperatures surpass that threshold for long periods of 20 or 30 years. Many scientists doubt it will be possible to keep the planet under 1.5 C due to the sheer amount of greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere and still getting pumped into it.
“The climate responds to the actual concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere so, unless we manage to stabilize those, we will inevitably face new global temperature records and their consequences,” Buontempo said.
Scientists say this year promises to be as warm or warmer than 2023, the hottest year on record.
“Billions of measurements from weather stations, satellites, ships, and planes point to the very basic fact that our planet is heating up at a dangerous pace,” said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at the Imperial College London's Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment.
“People should not be surprised that we have broken another record,” he said. “Humans continue to burn oil, gas, and coal, so the climate continues to warm. It is a very well understood relationship.”
“There is no silver bullet or magic fix for climate change,” he added. “We know what to do — stop burning fossil fuels and replace them with more sustainable, renewable sources of energy. Until we do that, extreme weather events intensified by climate change will continue to destroy lives and livelihoods.”
Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.
Follow @cainburdeau
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